PHGA 5002 Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
Professor Merold Westphal
Fall 2007
Wednesday 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Situated between Kant's Copernican revolution and Nietzsche's perspectivism, the nineteenth century experienced a radical questioning of the nature of truth and human understanding. The major reflections on the problem did not occur primarily in the abstract discourse of epistemological theory but in the concrete discourses of religious, social, and cultural critique. After a brief look at the Kantian formulation of the problem and the romantic solution(s), we will look a four major reformulations of the nature and task of philosophy against that background. First comes Hegel's daring attempt to reclaim philosophy's traditionally bold, ambitious place as the queen of the sciences, but in a radically new way. Then come three quite different repudiations of this project, along with the reconstructions of philosophy they imply, namely those of Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. In each case, a hermeneutics of suspicion works to highlight the impurity of pure reason. In addition to exploring the common front of these three against Hegel, we will explore the debate among the three over the role of secularism and enlightenment in post-Hegelian thought.

Since the problems addressed by these philosophers are still very much with us, and since all four philosophers are very much at the center of many contemporary philosophical debates, this will be a course as much about the present as about the nineteenth century.

Required texts (all paperback):

Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History, Hackett
Hegel, The Encyclopedia Logic, Hackett
Marx, Karl Marx: Selected Writings, Oxford (2^nd edition, 200-2002)
Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling/Repetition, Princeton
Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, Random House

Recommended text (also on reserve):
Westphal, Suspicion and Faith, Fordham