| PHIL
180 -- Phenomenology Fall 2008 |
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| Instructor:
Clinton Tolley office: HSS 8061 hours: 2-4pm, Thurs phone: 2-2686 email: ctolley [at] ucsd.edu |
Teaching Assistant:
{to be determined} office: --- hours: --- phone: --- email: --- |
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| Time:
Tuesday / Thursday, 11:00am-12:20pm Location: Faustina Solis Hall [SOLIS] 111 [map] |
| {available at Groundwork Books} Husserl, Ideas pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology tr., Kersten (Springer, 1983) Heidegger, Being and Time trs., Macquarrie and Robinson (Harper, 2008) Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception tr., Smith (Routledge, 2002) ** additional required readings to be made available on WebCT from: Brentano, Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint [1874] Heidegger, History of the Concept of Time [1925] |
| Dermot Moran, Introduction to Phenomenology
(Routledge, 2000) [google] {also available at Groundwork Books} |
| It is hard to
overestimate the extent of the influence of phenomenology upon 20th
century American and European philosophy. For this reason alone,
phenomenology merits our attention. Moreover, insofar as
phenomenology itself is still very much alive and flourishing, it
demands to be evaluated as a
possibly still-viable philosophical point of view in its own right. In this course, we will investigate phenomenology by tracing out its historical development, from its roots in the writings of Franz BRENTANO (1838–1917) and in the emerging field of empirical psychology, through the official introduction of a pure phenomenological method in the work of Edmund HUSSERL (1859–1938), and on through to its transformation into existential phenomenology by Martin HEIDEGGER (1889–1976) and (what might be called) its organic elaboration by Maurice MERLEAU-PONTY (1908–61). As its name suggests, phenomenology attempts to provide the 'logic of phenomena', which is to be achieved through the rigorous analysis of what it means for something to 'appear' to a mind. In this regard, phenomenology shares much of its subject-matter with psychology, though after Husserl, it purports to proceed by way of a method distinct from that of empirical psychology -- namely, a method of non-empirical reflection upon and intuition of the essence of consciousness and appearance as such. Through this method, phenomenology aims to exhibit a unified picture of the ontology of consciousness, the nature of its intentionality (i.e., its directedness toward something beyond itself), and the fundamental forms that this intentionality can take. At its most ambitious moments, phenomenology intends to identify what it means to be conscious, to be (something that has) a mind -- ultimately, what it means to be human. Our goal, then, will be to achieve a critical understanding of the method, findings, problems, and prospects of phenomenology, by working through the major texts of its key proponents. Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor. Note: May be repeated for credit with change in content and approval of the instructor. |
| mid-term exam (1500
words); due 11am, Thurs, 5th week final paper (2500 words); due 2:30pm, Weds, exam week attendance |
| {TBD} |
| Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
entries (requires sign-in) Overview
of the phenomenological
movement
Franz Brentano Edmund Husserl Martin Heidegger Maurice Merleau-Ponty Overview of existentialism Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
entries
Overview of phenomenology Franz Brentano Edmund Husserl Maurice Merleau-Ponty Overview of existentialism |