PHIL 304 Contemporary Philosophy
Texts/Course Description/Course Requirements/Course Schedule Course Notes 19th C/Course notes 20th C
Dr. Mark Smillie, Carroll College, Helena, Montana
Email: msmillie@carroll.edu
Please email me any comments or suggestions about the course or about
these webpages. I will try to make any reasonable changes in the way the course is
going and/or in the presentation on these pages. Votes of confidence are also
welcome!
Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (Philosophy Classics Volume IV). Forrest E. Baird, Editor, and Walter Kaufmann. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN 0-13-237363-7
Twentieth-Century Philosophy (Philosophy
Classics Volume V). Forrest E. Baird, Editor, and Walter Kaufmann. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN 0-13-264698-6
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The study of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century
philosophy and philosophers. Included in our study will be writings of the
philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, John Stuart Mill, Søren Kierkegaard, Karl
Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Bertrand Russell, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig
Wittgenstein, John Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, and Jacques Derrida. Students
should expect to discuss a wide spectrum of philosophical issues, and read writings from
many different schools of philosophical thought. Classes will be conducted very
informally, and students will take turns leading discussions.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
BASIC PARTICIPATION (10pts): I expect you to come to class. More importantly, I expect everyone to prepare the readings and participate in our discussions. I promise to keep the readings at a manageable level, and to make modifications in the pacing at the reasonable request of the entire class. As long as everyone is doing the reading, and coming to class with some knowledge of what is in the reading, and certainly some questions, and hopefully some criticisms or difficulties about the reading, the class should be successful, enjoyable and profitable for everyone. I will accept journaling about the readings and consider the journal as a supplement for your grade here.
LEADING CLASS DISCUSSIONS (30pts): Seminar classes will be lead by a team of two students. These students should prepare, distribute, and present a written outline of the reading, and initiate and lead our discussions. "Leading the discussion" involves presenting your outline, taking questions during the presentation, and then working through some previously prepared questions about the reading, or considering problems in interpreting the article, or testing or resolving some criticisms or objections to points in the article, or even careful reading of particularly "dense" or difficult passages. All I expect of everyone is to give this task their "best shot," and as long as you do that, you will receive full marks for participation.
PAPERS (30pts): Completion of write two (2) six-eight page papers,
each involving an analysis and critical examination of the writing of a philosopher. The
first is to consider a 19th century philosopher of your choice, and is due February 20;
the second is to consider a 20th century philosopher of your choice, and is due April
17. You need not write on the entire work of philosopher, but should chose a
manageable, reasonably long, and self-contained passage. You may choose a reading
from our textbooks (which is probably easiest), however, you may not choose any of the
readings we discuss in class. Other works outside the textbook should be approved by
me (I will be especially concerned with length and manageability, but also difficulty).
The essays should follow the standard format of "Critical Examination of a View"
Essays or "Adjudication of a Dispute" Essays, outlined in Jay Rosenberg’s The Practice of Philosophy: A Handbook for
Beginners (on library reserve).
EXAMINATIONS (30pts): A midterm and a final, each worth fifteen
points. The final will be given during finals week at our regular class meeting time.
Jan 12: First Day of Class. Read Preface, ppxi-xiii, Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
Mar 6: Midterm examination
Mar 9-13: Midsemester Break
Mar 16: Return/Summary. Read "Preface" &
"Map...Twentieth-Century"ppvii-xiii
Mar 18: Husserl: "Phenomenology" pp4-12
Mar 20: Dewey: "The Quest for Certainty" pp25-40
Mar 23: Dewey: "The Quest for Certainty" pp25-40
Mar 25: Du Bois: "The Souls of Black Folks" pp64-69
Mar 27: Russell: "Problems of Philosophy" pp73-86
Mar 30: Russell: "Mysticism and Logic" pp87-101
Apr 1: Heidegger: "The Way Back into the Ground of
Metaphysics" pp123-132
Apr 3: Wittgenstein: "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus"
pp160-168
Apr 6: Wittgenstein: "Philosophical Investigations"
pp168-185
Apr 8: Carnap: "The Elimination of Metaphysics" pp189-203
Apr 10: Good Friday, no class meeting
Apr 13: Easter Monday, no class meeting
Apr 15: Sartre: "Existentialism is a Humanism" pp254-267
Apr 17: Sartre: "Existentialism is a Humanism" pp254-267
Apr 20: De Beauvoir: "The Second Sex" pp271-282
Apr 22: Quine: "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" pp285-300
Apr 24: Austin: ""How to do Things with Words"
pp317-327
Apr 27: Derrida: "Signature, Event, Context" pp360-379
Apr 29: Rorty: "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature"
pp383-393
Apr 30: Irigaray: "Speculum of the Other Woman" pp398-406
May 7 (Thurs): Final exam. 10:00-11:45
Coppleston, S.J., Frederick. A History of Philosophy. Specifically Volume VII (Fichte to Nietzsche), Volume VIII (Bentham to Russell) and Volume IX (Maine de Biran to Sartre). Image Books. Still the recognized classic and very accessible.
Collins, James. A History of Modern European Philosophy. Lanham, MD: University Press of American, 1986 (1954). More "scholastic" than Coppleston, but it got me through the history comps in Grad School
Caponigri, A. Robert. Philosophy from the Renaissance to the
Romantic Age [Volume III, A History of Western Philosophy], Notre Dame, IN: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1963
---. Philosophy from the Romantic Age to the Age of Positivism
[Volume IV, A History of Western Philosophy], Notre Dame, IN: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1963.
---. Philosophy from the Age of Positivism to the Age of Analysis
[Volume V, A History of Western Philosophy]. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1963. All a little "heady" but still very good.
Stewart, Matthew. The Truth about Everything: An Irreverent
History of Philosophy with Illustrations. New York: Prometheus Books, 1997. Irreverent
yes. But pithy and has a way of capturing the basic point in understandable
language.