CLS3870

Prefacing: from Kant to Derrida

Alexander Garc'a Düttmann

8 points
* 2 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton

Objectives Upon successful completion of this course students should have gained a familiarity with the history of Continental Philosophy and its ways of raising and answering questions. They should have learnt how to apply their knowledge of this tradition to their own conceptual thought. They should have developed an enhanced competence in introducing their own ideas to others and putting their thoughts into effective written work.

Synopsis In this course students will read and analyse prefaces and introductions to the philosophical works which have been most influential in Continental Philosophy. We will start with Kant and Hegel (Critique of pure reason, Phenomenology of spirit); we will then discuss the comments Nietzsche wrote on books he had already published (in Ecce homo); we will continue by looking at the introduction to Heidegger's Being and time; finally we will turn to Adorno (Negative dialectics) and so to Derrida (`Outwork, prefacing', in Dissemination).

Assessment Participation in discussion, (equivalent to 1200 words): 20%
* Class papers, (equivalent to 1800 words): 30%
* Essays, (equivalent to 3000 words): 50%

Prescribed texts

Adorno T W Negative dialectics Seabury P
Derrida J Dissemination U Chicago P
Kant I Critique of pure Reason Macmillan
Hegel G W F Phenomenology of the Spirit Oxford
Nietzsche F On the genealogy of morals and Ecce Homo Vintage
Heidegger M Being and time Harper and Row