History of contemporary philosophy

Duration

45h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Arnaud Dewalque

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

Topic: The Sources of Philosophical Naturalism.
What, if anything, could make philosophy scientific? Could its method be similar to that of the natural sciences? Or is there a distinctive way of addressing and settling philosophical questions?
Overarching the biggest part of contemporary philosophy, "philosophical naturalism" is the view that there is a strong continuity between philosophy and the natural sciences. Moreover, supporters of philosophical naturalism usually claim that the idea of a "first philosophy," viz. the idea of a kind of knowledge more fundamental than any particular science, should be rejected. Those claims, however, have been challenged by a number of authors.
The course aims at critically discussing the relevance of philosophical naturalism by going back to its historical sources. Addressing in turn specific issues related to whether philosophy should adopt the method of the natural sciences, we will review the various rehabilitation strategies that have been proposed in post-idealistic 19th-century philosophy (Comte, Bolzano, Helmholtz, Windelband, Brentano, Stumpf, Husserl, etc.).

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

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.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

At least one Philosophy course.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course involve a series of lectures, in most cases with powerpoint presentation. There is no syllabus available. Each lesson will be based on a short text which will be made available in advance. Students in philosophy are asked to chooze three of the set texts and to write three short reading reports. The list of the texts and the schedule will be made available at the beginning of the course and can be downloaded by following the link below.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

Duration: 45 hours 2nd term. See http://cipl82.philo.ulg.ac.be/horaires

Recommended or required readings

A series of suggested readings will be made available at the first sessions (see schedule). The following list of recommended books may be helpful for students wishing to delve more deeply into the topic of the course:
- 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).

• 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).

• 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).

Assessment methods and criteria

For students in Philosophy, the assessment will be made up of two parts:

• Part I: a series of reading reports (40% of the final grade) wich will be submitted during the classes. The schedule will be made available at the beginning of the course.

• Part II: Final oral examination (60% of the final grade) during the June session.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

All students enrolled in History and Romance Languages and Literature wishing to follow this course as an option are welcome.

Contacts

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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