All the courses in the history of philosophy sequence, phil 101-5, examine the works of recognized philosophers in various periods and geographical regions of the West. This course examines the works of philosophers in the contemporary period, which begins at the end of the 19th Century and extends to the present. This is an extraordinary period in philosophical thinking, dominated by social and political upheavals, ethical skepticism, and the practical success of scientific logic and methodology. It is especially noteworthy for its rejection of Western metaphysics and its concentration on the importance of language.
The revolutionary development of modern science continued throughout the Nineteenth Century and into the Twentieth Century. Just as the development of Darwinian theory precipitated issues between science and religion, earlier, the evolution of Relativity and Quantum theories now precipitated debates on the nature of scientific knowledge and mathematical models of the world. While many philosophers began to reject the idealism of Immanuel Kant and his followers, skepticism about metaphysical systems was heightened. If anything, philosophy moved toward a more technical analysis of problems that increasingly dwelt upon logic and language. The school of Logical Positivism emerged from its foundation in the Vienna Circle, in the 1920s, and had a major (sometimes devastating) impact on philosophy up until the 1970s.
For most of the Twentieth Century, however, philosophy has been far from the Western mind. World War I erupted in the second decade as the direct product of global economic competition among modern industrial states. After a bizarre period of prosperity and excess in the 20s, economic collapse took its toll in the greatest depression ever. World War II erupted in the late 30s; and while this war ended with decisive victories, it left behind the collapse of European colonial empires, the international expansion of Communism, and (hence) the Cold War. Nor was the Cold War always cold, as Korea and Vietnam can attest. Within the race for victory, in WWII, the atomic bomb was invented and made technically feasible; the prices that we have paid have been the unimaginable escalation of nuclear arsenals all over the world and an uneasy fear of nuclear extermination.
In the United States, the period from 1960 through the mid-70s witnessed major social and political movements and calamities. A sign of the times was the emergence of the Flower Children who praised drugs and liberated sexuality and damned politics, business, and the military. Meanwhile, led by courageous people like Martin Luther King, Jr., African Americans made substantial progress in winning both social and civil rights. Native Americans followed in the 70s; and feminists followed in the 80s. America of the 1990s is scarcely recognizable as the same society when compared with the America of the early 1900s. The readings that have been selected for this course reflect the diversity in philosophical thinking throughout the century, but they also attempt to reflect these central social and political movements.
It is appropriate to begin this course with Sigmund Freud; for Freud, the product of a Nineteenth-Century medical education, at the University of Vienna, comprehended the enormous psychological trauma that the modern mode of life was causing in humans and devoted his long life to its study and therapeutic treatment. Few other people have had such a profound impact on Twentieth-Century thought and life. In England, Bertrand Russell moved from publication (with A. N. Whitehead) of Principia Mathematica to a distinctive analytical approach to philosophy, called Logical Atomism, and confidently announced that he had solved all outstanding philosophical questions, moving on to anti-war activism and various social causes. Closely associated with Russell, G. E. Moore waged war on Idealism and defended the common-sense view of our world. A student of both Russell and Moore, the Austrian-born Ludwig Wittgenstein, announced in his first major (and only published) work, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus , that he (too) had solved all the problems of philosophy; however, Wittgenstein meant by this only that he had solved the problems accessible to logical and linguistic scrutiny. In the next sentence, he said, ". . . the second thing in which the value of this work consists is that it shows how little is achieved when these problems are solved." After this, Wittgenstein retired to Austria where he dabbled in architecture and taught grammar school children. When he finally emerged and returned to Oxford to assume a chair in philosophy, Wittgenstein had revolutionized his thinking and was prepared to approach the more interesting but, perhaps, insoluble problems of philosophy. In this second phase of life, he never published anything and we are entirely reliant upon course notes taken by some of his most faithful and famous students as well as extensive collections of notes that he left behind at his death. A "best guess," at this time at least, would be that posterity (if it happens) will look back upon Wittgenstein as the century's most gifted philosophical thinker. Equally long-lived and prolific, when compared to Freud, the American John Dewey epitomized our practicality and our political optimism, though he argued most of his life for the values of education and culture, against long-standing American anti-intellectualism. Dewey continued and developed America's own philosophical tradition, Pragmatism, well into the 20th Century. Another of the century's best was Martin Heidegger, though the obscurity of his writing and his possible connections with Naziism have detracted from his reputation. Heidegger was drawn to philosophical problems of cosmic proportions and reworked fundamental ideas from Aristotle to Descartes and to Kant. In effect, he saw himself aligned with Nietzsche in a critique of Western Civilization but realized the need to carry Nietzsche's argument one step further, overcoming Western metaphysics completely. During and after WWII, Heidegger's thought dwelt upon science and technology increasingly. Perhaps Heidegger is the only person, thus far, who has really comprehended the spiritual problem of human technology in a way that suggests a future ethics of environmentalism. Just as Heidegger and others have focused attention on Nietzsche, others have re-focused attention on Marx. Thoroughly detached from political Communism, philosophical Marxists have continued in the tradition of an historical critique of Capitalism. One of these critics, Herbert Marcuse, had a tremendous impact on the Counter-Cultural Movement of the 60s and 70s, in America, and ended his career teaching philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. And finally, we will end the semester with Richard Rorty, a unique contemporary American philosopher who has attempted to combine Pragmatism and Continental philosophical tendencies in a comprehensive, powerful statement.
Resources
I have ordered several texts through Huntley Bookstore; these are noted in the bibliography, below. I have not ordered but I recommend W. T. Jones' A History of Western Philosophy and Volume V, The Twentieth Century to Wittgenstein and Sartre.
PHIL-104-L is our class E-MAIL list. Any question on readings, lectures, or discussion can be addressed to this list and will be readable by all class members. Send messages to the list at the address Phil-104-L@HMC.EDU. Private messages can be sent to me at Tad _Beckman@HMC.EDU. There is also a discussion folder for this class on the HMC Conferencing Site, WebCrossing. Access this site using your Web browser at http://www4.hmc.edu/webx or follow the link from the course HomePage.
All course materials, including this syllabus, are on the course Web site at http://www4.hmc.edu/humanities/phil104/. This site includes all course notes, reading and paper assignments, and other relevant information. Since I will update these materials throughout the semester, please be sure to visit the site occasionally (especially before assignment due dates) to review changes.
Please remember, also, that the Writing Center is available for help in drafting papers. It is located in TG 106.
Attendance and participation in class discussions are expected. If there is any reason why you cannot attend regularly, please see me immediately. Since the bulk of class time will be devoted to discussion of the texts, it is essential that everyone finish the assigned reading before class and be prepared to talk about it and ask questions, intelligently.
The WebCrossing site contains a schedule of class discussions. Each student must submit a discussion question and amplification to the correct day, on this site, at least two hours prior to class. I will review the discussion questions and structure the class discussion on that basis.
There will be three writing assignments during the semester. There will also be a final examination in this course.
Grading will be based on the following approximate distribution
of emphasis:
Class Participation (15%)
Discussion Questions (25%)
Papers (3) (15% each)
Final Exam (15%)
Bibliography
Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents
Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
Moore, "In Defense of Common Sense"
Wittgenstein, On Certainty
Dewey, Freedom and Culture
Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology
Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation
Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity
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This page was last updated on July 14, 1997.