Philosophy 330 - SEM:HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Topic Course This seminar will reconstruct and examine a slice of one of the most influential trajectories in the history of nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophy. The focus will be the work of the German philosopher Nietzsche. On what basis did he criticize the role played by reason, understanding, truth and morality in the work of respected philosophers such as Plato, Descartes and Kant in the history of philosophy? Who were his historical role models? The seminar will explore Nietzsche?s "revaluations" of the concepts he criticized; his creative analysis of various forms of suffering and their implicit role in philosophical thinking; his critique of nations and nationalism; and his own re-conception of the splendid individual, expressed in aesthetic terms. How did Nietzsche's critique influence the thinking of philosophers who came after him, both in the west and in the east (like Foucault and Nishitani)? How did his ideas and methods inflect discussions in philosophical areas such as existentialism, postmodernism and feminism?

Topic: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Instructor Permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores