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This seminar provides an examination of the central philosophical texts and arguments of one or more key figures in 20th-Century German (and Austrian) philosophy. Students will gain insight into the wider context of the texts studies and an understanding of the arguments for and against the positions taken. They will also develop their own interpretation and assessment of the texts examined.
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In the German-speaking world, the 20th century was a period of enormously diverse and fruitful philosophical activity: the phenomenological and hermeneutical tradition of Husserl, Heidegger, and Gadamer; the analytical philosophy of Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle; the Frankfurt School tradition from Horkheimer and Adorno to Habermas and Honneth; and the influential work of Hannah Arendt. Each year, this seminar will focus on one or two philosophers, focusing on particularly influential texts.
Theme of 2018:
The Seminar aims to provide an overview over key texts and themes of the early Frankfurt School. Starting from Horkheimer’s programmatic essay “Traditional and Critical Theory”, it covers texts by Adorno, Löwenthal, Fromm, Pollock, Neumann and Benjamin and ends with a discussion of excerpts from Horkheimer and Adorno’s “Dialectic of Enlightenment”. The texts will be grouped along key topics such as cultural critique, social psychology, political economy, philosophy of history and critique of reason. Our guiding question will be what, if anything, is the project that united this diverse set of authors and how did their idea of Critical Theory develop between the 1930s and the late 1940s.
This course is for RMA students in the Graduate School of Humanities and students in the History and Philosophy of Science. Students of other MA-programmes (such as Applied Ethics), please contact the Course Coordinator.
The entrance requirements for Exchange Students will be checked by International Office and the Programme coördinator. Therefore, you do not have to contact the Programme coördinator yourself.
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