Class Time, Location: M/W 10:30-11:45, SN 1103
Office Hours: M/W/F 11:30-12:00pm; Friday 1-3pm, and by appointment
| Date | Reading |
| Sept 9 | Course introduction. Begin reading from Arendt’s “Tradition and the Modern Age”
Recommended: Maurizio Passerin d’Entreves, “Hannah Arendt,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. |
| Sept 14 | No class. |
| Sept 16 | Arendt’s “Tradition and the Modern Age,” finish.
Douglas Klusmeyer, “Hannah Arendt on Authority and Tradition” (from Arendt: Key Concepts [Acumen, 2014]) |
| Sept 21 | Arendt’s “The Concept of History Ancient and Modern.”
Masa Mrovlic, “Narrating and Understanding” (from Arendt: Key Concepts [Acumen, 2014]) |
| Sept 23 | Hannnah Arendt, “What is Freedom?” (available on course website) |
| Sep 28 | Arendt, “Action”
Heidegger, “Introduction” to Being and Time, first half. Dorothea Frede, “The Question of Being: Heidegger’s Project,” from Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. |
| Sep 30 | Arendt, “Action”
Heidegger, “Introduction” to Being and Time, second half. |
| Oct 5 | Arendt, “Action” |
| Oct 7 | Class Cancelled |
| Oct 12 | No class |
| Oct 14 | Heidegger, “Language” from Poetry, Language, Thought |
| Oct 19 | Heidegger, “What are Poets for?” from Poetry, Language, Thought, pp. 15-50 |
| Oct 21 | Heidegger, “What are Poets for?” from Poetry, Language, Thought, pp. 50-end
Benjamin Noys, “Heidegger and the Hermeneutic Turn,” from Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. |
| Oct 26 | Foucault, “The Order of Discourse,” inaugural lecture at the Collège de France, available on course website.
Recommended Resources: Thomas Flynn, “Mapping Foucault on History,” and Joseph Rouse, “Power/Knowledge,” from the Cambridge Companion to Foucault, ed. G. Gutting (2005). |
| Oct 28 | Foucault, “Lecture on Nietzsche,” in Lectures on the Will to Know
Recommended Resources: Stuart Elden, Power, Nietzsche and the Greeks: Foucault’s Leçons sur la volonté de savoir, Berfois (July 20, 2011) Also, Peter Gratton, chapter 4, The State of Sovereignty (2012). |
| Nov 2 | Foucault, Lectures on the Will to Know, lectures one to two. |
| Nov 4 | Foucault, Lectures on the Will to Know, lectures three to four. |
| Nov 9 | Foucault, Lectures on the Will to Know, lectures five to six. |
| Nov 11 | No class. |
| Nov 16 | Foucault, The Punitive Society, lectures 6-8 |
| Nov 18 | Foucault, Punitive Society, 9-11 |
| Nov 23 | Foucault, The Punitive Society, lectures 12-end |
| Nov 25 | Derrida, Rogues, Part I, ch. 1-2.
Recommended: Len Lawlor, “Deconstruction” from A Blackwell Companion to Derrida(2013) |
| Nov 30 | Derrida, Rogues, Part I, ch. 3. |
| Dec 2 | Derrida, Rogues, Part I, ch. 4-5. |
| Dec 4 | Derrida, Rogues, Part I, ch. 5-end.
Recommended: Peter Gratton, Chapter 5, The State of Sovereignty: Lessons from the Political Fictions of Modernity (2012) |
| Finals Week: Final Paper due at Final Exam time, 15-20 pages, double-spaced, topic to be chosen by each student. |
Course Materials 