Saint-Louis University - Bruxelles
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FILO1218 - Seminar: reading of philosophical texts III



Credits : 5

Lecturer :


Mode of delivery :
Face-to-face , first term, 30 hours of theory.

Language of instruction :
French

Learning outcomes :
The aim of this seminar wants students to go further into reading major philosophical texts of Western tradition. The purposes carry on comparing and broadening exegetical debates.
I. A learning strategy is to take the opposing view to the thesis that “pure” thinking exists behind a “ curtain of words” (Berkeley) in order to prove that the latter does exist only in its several discursive uses.

II. This seminar wants to avoid rigid philosophical doctrine, which boils down to an amount of dogmas. It also aims at paying attention to thinking process and the necessity to bear in mind a broader meaning conception which takes into account the conditions of its statement. Studying a statement could lead someone to the frontier of language and thinking.

III. From then on, a wide range of philosophical language statements is worthy of attention: dialogues, treaties, systems, aphorisms, poems are different ways of shaping a thinking path.

IV. Each philosophy is part of a social, political and historical period which is necessary -but not sufficient- to its elaboration. Each philosophy is part of a thinking line or against established traditions. It refers to forerunners ; It stirs controversy with contemporaries, and can also look for educating its readers and learners. We are going to decode all these interactive dynamics -sometimes implied-, which constitute the whole meaning of philosophical texts.

V. Paying attention to the complexity of philosophical texts, we could aim at a better and subtler understanding of their meaning. Each seminar is so going to be dedicated to the clarification and the study of a philosopher's thinking with his key-concepts.

VI. We will try to commit to keen exegetical talks on learning where to stand in a debate and on confronting opposing comments.

VII. We will also look for emphasizing a more comparative dimension: It won't be about looking for methodical or thematic transhistorical invariants ; on the contrary, we will need to attempt at showing the differences as well as the shift-keying and reinterpreting from one philosophical theory to another.

VIII. At last, we will try -to the extent possible- to read original works and show loss of meaning due to translations.



Prerequisites :
For the Bachelor in Philosophy :


Co-requisites :
None

Course contents :
The subject of the seminar changes every year. For instance :
1. Comparative reading of Anaximander's fragment and of the first stasimon from Sophocles's Antigone by M. Heidegger and C. Castoriadis.
2. Thinking the ‘being-together' in the 20th c.: from criticism of dayliness in Heidegger to value pluralism in Arendt. Excerpt reading from ‘Sein und Zeit' by M. Heidegger and ‘The Human Condition' by H. Arendt.
3. Imagination, repressed from the philosophical discourse ? Comparative reading of the status of the status of imagination in Kant from M. Heidegger and C. Castoriadis.
4. The Republic …from Plato to Badiou. What is the status of the city “within the words” : utopia, ideal, nightmare or paradigm ?
5. What does it mean to construct an untimely relationship to history ? Comparative reading of Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy (1872) and On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life (1874).
2016. « From the deconstruction of prejudices of the of the philosophical tradition towards a Philosophy of Future », Reading of Beyond Good and Evil from Friedrich Nietzsche.



Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Lectures

Assessment methods and criteria :
Oral presentation within the seminar and an around 9,000 words essay. Interactive talk participation.

Recommended or required reading :
A selected and commented bibliography will be handed out in class.


Other information :
complementary philosophical texts will be closely read and subject to critical scrutiny.