PHILOSOPHY 405: Contemporary
Continental Philosophy
Heidegger and Levinas
Dr. James Hatley
Office: Philosophy House on
Phone: 410-677-5072, 443-614-8030
Office Hours:
Two of the commanding figures of 20th century continental philosophy are Martin Heidegger and his one-time student Emmanuel Levinas. We will be looking at Heidegger’s Being and Time, arguably one of the greatest works of philosophy written during the 20th century, as well as Levinas’ response in his own thinking to Heidegger’s project. While Levinas goes on to write two masterworks of philosophy in his own voice, we will be looking at his earlier work which engages in a close reading of Heidegger’s project. While Heidegger poses the question of being—“Why are there beings, rather than nothing?”—and argues it is the most compelling philosophical question, Levinas comes to take issue with this view. He once articulated his objection in his own pithy reformulation of Heidegger’s question: “Is it just even to exist?” Among other themes we will be considering in our readings are the relative importance of ontology and ethics, the meaning of the phenomenological method, the role of language and hermeneutics in the posing of philosophical questions, the structure of human temporality, how death and birth define the limits of our being, and the role of other beings in our own questioning of existence.
NOTE: Philosophy 405 is an “enhanced” course; that is, a
course that might traditionally be offered for 3 credit hours, but which,
within the context of both the newly reformed Philosophy program and the
Texts:
Required:
a) Being and Time, Martin Heidegger
b) Existence and Existents, Emmanuel Levinas
c) Time and the Other, Emmanuel Levinas
Suggested:
a) Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil, Rüdiger Safranski
b) Emmanuel
Levinas: His Life and Legacy, Salomon Malka
Grading:
Weekly Reading Questions (13) 26%
Response Paper I to Being and
Time 14%
Response Paper II to Being
and Time 14%
Response Paper
Response Paper IV to
Existence and Existents 15%
Class Presentations (4) 16%
Response Papers ask you to develop an analysis of a particular question
raised by either Heidegger or Levinas. You will be required to characterize the
question, explicate the thinker's treatment of the question and then give your
reaction to the thinker's handling of the question. Response papers are
the principal manner in which your grade will be determined in this
class. They will be assigned roughly every four weeks and require that
you write a four page essay in which you will respond thoughtfully to a
question pertaining to what we have been reading and discussing in class. A
response paper should make use of citations from the text(s) appropriate to the
question to be answered. In a response paper you are to give reasons for
any position you take. The question "Why?" should always be in the back
of your mind as you write.
Weekly Reading Questions will be turned in by the students at thirteen times during the semester. This assignment requires that you respond in short essays totaling at least a typewritten page in length to questions given the week before about a reading we will be discussing that day in class. Your short essays must be turned in on the first day the class meets each week at the beginning of the class. Your essays will contribute to starting off discussion of assigned reading for the current week. You should bring two copies of this assignment to class--one to turn in and the other to help with your notes and to share with the class, if called upon. If you turn in reading questions after the day they are due, the best grade you can receive is a C.
Class Presentations: On the four weeks you are assigned one of these, you will be required to bring in one question—either from the weekly reading questions or one that you have posed yourself—with an extensive answer that you will read aloud and which will begin the class discussion on a Monday. If you turn in reading questions after the day they are due, the best grade you can receive is a C.
Writing Across the Curriculum: This class emphasizes both
discussion and writing as ways of learning. In addition to the
assignments listed below, you will be asked to participate in a variety of
in-class discussion and writing exercises that will emphasize collaborative and
cooperative learning.
HONOR CODE: Each written assignment should be accompanied by
the following statement, dated and signed by the student: “This assignment was written
entirely by me in my own words, except for quotations from and references to
another person’s work, which I have been careful to point out. I have in
no way made use of the words or ideas of other persons without
attribution.”
WEEK
WEEK TWO: The Question of Being as a Theme for
Philosophy
Weekly
Questions Due: 1) What does Heidegger
mean by the question of Being? 2) What is meant by the term “Dasein”? 3) Discuss a moment in your life when the
question of Being was posed to you by the very circumstances you were
undergoing.
WEEK THREE:
Being-in-the-World
Weekly Questions Due:
WEEK FOUR: The Worldhood of
the World
Weekly Questions Due
First Response Paper Due
WEEK
Weekly Questions Due
WEEK SIX: Being-in as Such
Reading:
Being and Time, pp.169-224
Weekly
Questions Due
WEEK SEVEN: Care as One’s
Being
Weekly
Questions Due
WEEK EIGHT:
Being-toward-Death as one’s Unifying Possibility
Weekly Questions Due
WEEK NINE: Conscience as the
Call of Care
Weekly Questions Due
Second Response Paper Due
WEEK
Reading:
Existence and Existents, pp. 1-44
Weekly Questions Due
WEEK ELEVEN: Existence
without World
Reading:
Existence and Existents, pp. 45-63
Weekly Questions Due
WEEK TWELVE: Undergoing Existence
Reading:
Existence and Existents, pp. 64-106
Weekly Questions Due
WEEK THIRTEEN: The Solitude
of Existence and Salvation
Weekly Questions Due
Third Response Paper
Due on Existence and Existents
WEEK FOURTEEN: Alterity Rupturing Time—Death and Eros
Weekly Questions Due
FINALS WEEK: Fourth
Response Paper Due on Time and the Other