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Identical coursesContinental Philosophy (B-KUL-W0W10A)
Cannot be taken as part of an examination contractAims
This course is a first introduction into the domain of continental philosophy, in its various thematic domains and problems. The central question of this course is: what are the most important themes in continental philosophy and which concepts and authors are crucial to understand the most important evolutions in continental philosophy?
At the end of this course, students:
- have developed insight into the fundamental themes, authors and concepts in continental philosophy;
- know how to orient themselves in the overarching philosophical questions pertaining to man and world and in a number of central subdomains of post-Nietzschean philosophy;
- know how to situate post-Nietzschean philosophy in the larger philosophical-historical context;
- have insight into the proper essence of continental philosophy and how it relates to its Anglo-American counterpart;
- can navigate a variety of approaches and philosophical convictions;
- know how to appropriate these approaches and convictions in a personal manner, how to confront them with each other, and how to critically analyze them;
- understand, where relevant, how philosophical theories and societal debates relate to each other;
- are capable of formulating all this in a clear and coherent manner.
In the text-seminars, the student is taught how to analyze and understand primary texts (as much as possible in their original language). At the end of the course, the student can uncover the structure and coherence of the text, knows how to make the key-concern of the text visible in a comprehensible manner, how to reconstruct it, how to identify the central arguments, how to make them explicit and situate them historically, and how to see through and explain the development of the arguments.
The students can apply reading strategies to a philosophical text. They develop an affinity for different (philosophical) text genres and can use this affinity in writing and reading. They know how to deal with different approaches to a text (e.g. explicate philosophical and historical context, phenomenology, marxism, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, structuralism, gender theory etc.). They also know how to deal with the rhetorical, stylistic and logical dimensions of a text.
Previous knowledge
None
Is included in these courses of study
Activities
5 ects. Continental Philosophy (B-KUL-W0W10a)
Content
In this course, we start from an overview of the most influential theories and authors since the second half of the nineteenth century (from Nietzsche onwards to post-structuralism). We discuss the following schools and debates: phenomenology, deconstruction, structuralism, post-structuralism, critical theory, postmodernism, linguistic turn, psychoanalysis, post-colonialism and feminism.
This course is built up as follows:
- Philosophy in the 20st century: Is it a theory or a practice? Is the concept of truth still important? What is the relationship to non-philosophy? (a.o. Marx & Engels, Freud, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger)
- What is modernity? What is our relation to it? What is post-modernism? (a.o.Horkheimer & Adorno, Foucault, Lyotard)
- What is language and is there a non-linguistic world? (a.o. Wittgenstein, de Saussure, Merleau-Ponty)
- What is alterity? What is the Other? What is the philosophical role of the Other in 20 century philosophy? (a.o. Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Levinas)
- Criticisms of capitalism. (a.o. Marx, Adorno, Deleuze and Guattari, Althusser)
- What is gender identity? What is desire and is it male? (a.o. Freud, Beauvoir, Butler)
Course material
Course book
Toledo
Is also included in other courses
1 ects. Continental Philosophy: Reading Seminar (B-KUL-W0W11a)
Content
Close reading of primary texts connected with the lectures (text selection may change from year to year)
In 2024-2025, the reading seminar will be taught by Diego Martinez Zarazua.
Course material
Reader
Format: more information
We read primary sources in groups of approx. 30 students.
Is also included in other courses
Evaluation
Evaluation: Continental Philosophy (B-KUL-W2W10a)
Explanation
Written exam during the examination period (90 percent of the grade)
Four assignments that are connected to the reading seminars (10 percent of the grade)
These assignments consist of a written preparation and submission (Toledo) of a couple of questions.
- Students who submit all the 4 requirements get 2 out of 2 points.
- Students who fail to submit 1 assignment: 1 out of 2 points
- Students who fail to submit 2 assignments: 0 out of 2 points
- Students who fail to submit more than 2 assignments: NA (niet-afgelegd) for the entire course
Information about retaking exams
Only the written exam can be retaken. The result for the assignments will be carried over to the third examination session. Students who have to retake the course in a next academic year have to retake all the components of the exam.