Requirements:
i. Attendance and participation
ii. A) Presentation on some of the texts during seminars
or
B) Written paper (5-7 pages) on one of the discussed topics.
Description and Goals:
In this course, we will read and discuss such figures as M. Heidegger, J.-P. Sartre and M. Merleau-Ponty who are generally considered to be representing the existential ?wing? of phenomenology. The course will pursue three main goals:
i. First, we will outline the common background of the early approaches of Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty explaining why it is possible to talk about the existential phenomenology in the first place. We will investigate their emphasis on ontology and corresponding existential accounts of selfhood, intersubjectivity and the world.
ii. Based on this, we will investigate the specifics of every approach emphasizing their differences and mutual criticisms. In particular, we will examine how Heidegger?s existential analytics of Dasein correlates to Sartre?s philosophy of mind and Merleau-Ponty?s bodily phenomenology.
iii. We will also investigate some perspectives that are opened up by the existential approach. This includes pragmatic readings of phenomenology and more recent advances in neuroscience.
1. Topic: Being-there. Heidegger?s Fundamental Ontology.
Class Reading:
i. M. Heidegger, Being and Time, §1-4
ii. T. Carman, What is Fundamental Ontology
2. Topic: Being-with-Others and Being Lost in Others.
Class reading:
i. M. Heidegger, Being and Time, §46; 50-53
ii. H. Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World, Chapter 8, The Who of Everyday Dasein
3. Topic: Winning Oneself Back through Being-Toward-Death.
Class reading:
i. M. Heidegger, §30 and 53
ii. J. Haugeland, Truth and Finitude
4. Topic: Phenomena of Being and Being of Phenomena: Sartre?s ontological argument.
Class reading:
i. J. P. Sartre, Transcendence of ego, pp. 1-12
ii. J. P. Sartre, Being and Nothingness, Introduction: chapters 1-5
5. Topic: Nothing but Consciousness: a Basic Sketch of Being-for-itself.
Class Reading:
i. Being and Nothingness, part 1, chapter 1
ii. P. Spade, Lectures on Sartre, pp. 80-93
6. Topic: Encountering Others
Class Reading:
i. J. P. Sartre, Being and Nothingness, chapter 3.1.4, Look
ii. J.-P. Sartre, No Exit
7. Topic: ?Consciousness as a project of the world:? Merleau-Ponty?s turn to the pre-reflective world
Class Reading:
i. M. Merleau-Ponty, Foreword to Phenomenology of Perception
ii. M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, chapter Phenomenal Field
8. Topic: Body as Existential Core of Being-in-the-World: Schneider?s Case
Class Reading:
i. M. Merleau-Ponty, The Spatiality of One?s Own Body and Motility, pp. 112-171
ii. H. Dreyfus, Merleau-Ponty and Recent Cognitive Science
9. Topic: Anonymity and Sharedness: Merleau-Pontian account of Others
Class Reading:
i. M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, chapter Other Selves and the Human World, pp. 403-425
ii. LAU Kwok-ying, Intersubjectivity and Phenomenology of the Other: Merleau-Ponty?s Contribution
10. Topic: Perspectives of existential phenomenology I: Pragmatic readings
Class Reading:
i. M. Wrathall, Background Practices and Understanding of Being, pp. 1-15 in: Background Practices: Essays on the Understanding of Being.
ii.
11. Topic: Perspectives of existential phenomenology II: Neuroscience.
Class Reading:
i. A. Noë, Out of Our Heads, The Paradox of Mind and Science, p. 42-46; Wide Minds, pp. 61-82
ii. Ralph D. Ellis, Phenomenology-Friendly Neuroscience: The Return To Merleau-Ponty as Psychologist; in: Human Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jan., 2006), pp. 33-55
- Učitel: Daniil Koloskov