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| PHIL0010-1 | History of contemporary philosophy
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| Duration : | 45h Th |
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| Number of credits : |
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| Lecturer : | Arnaud Dewalque |
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Language(s) of instruction :
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| French language |
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Course contents :
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| The course aims at exploring the roots of the present-day philosophical scene in late nineteen- and early twentieth-century Austrian-German philosophy. It focuses on the so-called "renaissance" of the philosophy, viz. the renewal which followed the decline of German idealism (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel). One of the central figures of the course will be Franz Brentano (1838-1917), whose contribution to philosophy sees a spectacular surge of interest since several years. We will replace the development of the Brentano School in its historical context, namely the critical reception of Kant and the development of scientific psychology. Just like the course of Contemporary Philosophy (PHIL0019-1), this course will be based on three inter-related axes:
- an historical axis: the Kant-reception and the antagonism between neo-Kantian tendencies and anti-Kantian tendencies;
- a philosophical axis: the problem of introspection;
- a metaphilosophical axis: the relationship between philosophy and psychology.
We will address e.g. the following questions: what is the meaning of Kant's critical project? What are its strong points and its weaknesses? How to ground historical sciences? What is the basis of scientific psychology? Do we have a privileged access to our own mental states? What role should play psychological reports in philosophy? Can philosophy be based on psychology without turning into a kind of "psychologism"? etc. |
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Learning outcomes of the course :
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| By the end of the course, listeners are supposed to:
- master a series of historical informations about the nineteen-century Austrian-German philosophy.
- be able to look in a critical manner to the historiography of this period as it is available in classical manuals of the history of Western philosophy.
- be aware of a small number of controversial problems which have had a crucial role to play in the birth of contemporary philosophy.
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Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :
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| At least one Philosophy course. |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
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| The course involve a series of lectures, in most cases with powerpoint presentation. There is no syllabus available. However, a handout with the main excerpts discussing during the course will be made available to the listeners in a PDF form which can be downloaded from the ULg-website. |
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Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
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| Duration: 45 hours 1st + 2nd terms, on Tuesdays, 10am-12 noon. Lectures take place in the room "Philo II" (main building, 2nd floor). First lecture: Tuesday October 4th 2011. See http://cipl82.philo.ulg.ac.be/horaires (http://cipl82.ulg.ac.be/horaires) |
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Recommended or required readings :
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| The main excerpts discussed during the course will be made available to participants in PDF form which can be downloaded from the ULg-website. List of reference books will also be made available during classes. Most of them may be helpful for students wishing to delve more deeply into the topic of the course. See e.g.:
- On the historical background of German-Austrian philosophy during the second half of the nineteen century:
- L. Freuler, La Crise de la philosophie au XIXe siècle, Paris, Vrin, 1997 (available at the ULg Philosophy library: 43FRE).
- M. Heidegger, "Genèse et première percée de la recherche phénoménologique", dans Prolégomènes à l'histoire du concept de temps, French translation. A. boutot, Paris, Gallimard, 2006, pp. 33-51 (50HEI.BOU).
- On the Brentano School:
- D. Fisette and G. Fréchette, "Le Legs de Brentano", from the collection A l'école de Brentano. De Würzbourg à Vienne, Pars, Vrin, 2007, pp. 13-160 (45BRE.FIS).
- L. Albertazzi, M. Libardi and R. Poli (eds.), The School of Franz Brentano, Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1996 (45BRE.ALB).
- On neo-Kantianism:
- E. Dufour, Les Néokantiens. Valeur et vérité, Paris, Vrin, 2003.
- M. Ferrari, Retours à Kant. Introduction au néo-kantisme, French translation, Th. Loisel, Paris, Cerf, 2001 (42KAN.FER).
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Assessment methods and criteria :
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| For students in Philosophy, the assessment will be made up of two parts:
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Part I: One reading report (40% of the final grade) to be submitted in two versions. Provisional version is due on 22 February and final version on 8 May 2012.
A 'reading report' is a short text (five to ten pages) presented as a summary of a piece of reading, a commentary or a critical analysis. Each report will cover an article or chapter from the reading list given during the classes. The report must summarise the essential elements of the text: general objective, theses, arguments, main concepts, questionable developments etc. The criteria for assessment are: 1. understanding of the subject, 2. clarity and quality of language; 3. structure and internal coherence.
Failure to comply with basic formal conventions (spelling, formatting, quotations, etc) will be automatically sanctioned by penalty points and can, where appropriate, give rise to the work being simply postponed and a corrected version being required to be submitted during the second session. Conversely, the choice of an article written in a foreign language will give rise to one bonus point.
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Part II: Final oral examination (60% of the final grade) during the June session.
The exam will take the form of a short interview during which students should demonstrate their knowledge of the subject matter covered in class and understanding of the course reading material. This involves, for example, situating an author in the philosophical landscape of this period, describing the main features of a philosophical school, explaining a concept, commenting upon an extract of text covered in class or developing a line of argument analyzed during the year.
For students from other disciplines: oral examination only. |
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Organizational remarks :
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| All students enrolled in History and Romance Languages and Literature wishing to follow this course as an option are welcome. A part of the course is devoted to the critical philosophy of history and is likely to provide historians with some reflexion tools on their own discipline. |
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Contacts :
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| Teacher
Arnaud Dewalque
Philosophy Department
7, Place du 20-août, Building A1/2nd floor
B-4000 Liège
Phone 0032 (4) 366 55 93
E-mail a.dewalque@ulg.ac.be |
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| Items online : |
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| Overview of the School of Brentano |
| Overview of the main representatives of the so-called Brentano-School (Stumpf, Marty, Husserl, etc.). |
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