German 697X - ST-19th Century German Thought

The course is a survey of the great German thinkers of the long nineteenth century (1789-1914). The readings are selections of original writings by Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud, supplemented with secondary sources chosen for their clarity and aid in reading these mostly difficult texts. The course does not require any previous knowledge. The approach to these thinkers is analytic in the tradition of Anglo-American philosophy-that is, students will evaluate the persuasiveness and logical adequacy of the arguments. The central concerns of these thinkers were the Enlightenment and its critique, especially the role and proper place in human affairs of irrationality, labor, history, freedom, religion, and economic and political liberalism. Taught in English.