Friedrich Nietzsche caustically and wittily called the foundations of the western intellectual tradition into question.  Throughout the twentieth century, philosophers have built on Nietzsche’s discrediting of metaphysical thought, and sought new ways of thinking about truth and reality by engaging with cultural discourses such as aesthetics, politics, and ethics.  In figures such as Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jean-Luc Marion, this has opened the way to new possibilities for exploring transcendence and thought about God in the twenty-first century.  This unit examines areas that may include the foundations of the postmodern in Nietzsche, Lyotard and Foucault; the reworking of the metaphysical tradition by the hermeneutics and aesthetics of Gadamer and Merleau-Ponty; the deconstructive strategies of Heidegger and Derrida; and the much-debated contemporary ‘theological turn’ in French phenomenology.

Undergraduate Prerequisites

Graduate and Postgraduate Prerequisites (AP319)

one unit of philosophy; e.g., AP351 or AP350

Requirements

2 hours per week

Undergraduate Assessment

Graduate and Postgraduate Assessment (AP319)

Bibliography

• Cutrofello, Andrew.  Continental Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction.  Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy.  London: Routledge, 2005.
• Grenz, Stanley J.  A Primer on Postmodernism.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996.
• Janicaud, Domique, Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Jean-Luc Marion, and Michel Henry.  Phenomenology and the ‘Theological Turn’: The French Debate.  Perspectives in Continental Philosophy, no. 15. New York: Fordham University Press, 2000.
• Hart, Kevin.  Postmodernism: A Beginner’s Guide. Oxford: Oneworld, 2004.
• Kearney, Richard, and Maria Rainwater, eds.  The Continental Philosophy Reader.  London: Routledge, 1995.
• Mackinlay, Shane.  Interpreting Excess: Jean-Luc Marion, Saturated Phenomena, and Hermeneutics.  Perspectives in Continental Philosophy.  New York: Fordham University Press, 2010.
• McGushin, Edward F. Foucault’s Askēsis: An Introduction to the Philosophical Life.  Northwestern University Topics in Historical Philosophy. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2007.
• McNeill, William, and Karen S. Feldman, eds.  Continental Philosophy: An Anthology.  Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies, no. 6. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1998.
• Moran, Dermot.  Introduction to Phenomenology.  New York: Routledge, 2000.
• West, David.  An Introduction to Continental Philosophy.  Cambridge: Polity, 1996.