Philosophy 225
Smith College
Fall 2012
M W 2:40-4
Susan Levin
Dewey 203
Office Hours: M 9-10; W 1-2; and by appointment
Phone: x3647
E-mail: slevin@smith.edu
Continental Philosophy
This course provides a survey of major figures and themes in continental philosophy. Following
brief consideration of Kant’s “critical idealism,” we will investigate key nineteenth-century
developments as evidenced by the work of G. W. F. Hegel, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich
Nietzsche. Topics to be addressed include conceptions of human history; views of human
flourishing; and human nature and the nature of morality. In what follows, we will turn to
existentialism and the work of the twentieth-century philosophers Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul
Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. We will consider their reactions to influential conceptions of
human nature and agency; in addition, we will address their reflections on the character of
individuals’ obligations to themselves and individuals’ relationship to society at large in the
flourishing human life. In the final section of the course, we will expand our examination of
individuals’ roles in societal contexts and the pertinence of those roles to individuals’ capacity to
flourish. In this unit, we will consider the ideas of Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers,
Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Jürgen Habermas, addressing issues that include the basis of societal
hierarchies and human beings’ relationship to technology.
Required Texts (Available at the College Bookstore)
Beauvoir, Simone de. All Men Are Mortal. Tr. Leonard Friedman. Reissue edition. W. W.
Norton and Company, 1992.
Guignon, Charles and Derk Pereboom, eds. Existentialism: Basic Writings. Second edition.
Indianapolis: Hackett, 2001.
Hegel, G. W. F. Introduction to the Philosophy of History. Tr. Leo Rauch. Indianapolis: Hackett,
1988.
Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Tr. William Lovitt.
New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
Kant, Immanuel. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. Second edition. Indianapolis:
Hackett, 2002.
Marx, Karl. Selected Writings. Ed. Lawrence Simon. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. Tr. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House
(Vintage Books edition), 1966.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality. Tr. Maudemarie Clark and Alan J. Swensen.
Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.
Additional readings will be available on e-reserve.
Calendar
I. Introduction (Sept. 10)
II. Background: Kant (Sept. 12-17)
Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
III. Post-Kantian Idealism: Hegel (Sept. 19-24)
Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History
IV. A Critical Reaction: Kierkegaard (Sept. 26-Oct. 1)
Kierkegaard: material in Existentialism: Basic Writings, Guignon and Pereboom, eds.,
pp. 19-77 (Background Reading from Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit; Kierkegaard,
Fear and Trembling)
Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death and Concluding Unscientific Postscript (in
Existentialism: Basic Writings, Guignon and Pereboom, eds., pp. 78-92)
V. “Reason,” “Objectivity” and “Morality” Evaluated: Nietzsche (Oct. 3-17—Autumn
Recess: Oct. 6-9)
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality
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VI. Existentialism (including the question of the extent to which Heidegger is legitimately
called an “existentialist”): Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir (Oct. 22-Nov. 12)
Heidegger, Being and Time (in Existentialism: Basic Writings, Guignon and Pereboom,
eds., pp. 211-54)
Sartre, “The Humanism of Existentialism” and Being and Nothingness (in Existentialism:
Basic Writings, Guignon and Pereboom, eds., pp. 290-362)
Heidegger, “Letter on Humanism” (in Basic Writings—on e-reserve)
Beauvoir, All Men Are Mortal
VII. Human Nature and Human Beings’ Relationship to Technology: Marx, Heidegger,
Jaspers, Gadamer, Habermas (Nov. 14-Dec. 12—Thanksgiving Recess: Nov. 21-25)
Marx, material from Selected Writings
Heidegger, “The Question Concerning Technology” and “The Turning” (in Heidegger,
The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays)
Jaspers, selections from The Atom Bomb and the Future of Man (on e-reserve)
Gadamer, selections from Reason in the Age of Science (on e-reserve)
Habermas, selections from Knowledge and Human Interests; The Hermeneutics Reader:
Texts of the German Tradition from the Enlightenment to the Present (ed. K. MuellerVollmer); and Communication and the Evolution of Society (on e-reserve)
Requirements
1) Regular and spirited attendance! Everyone should come to each class meeting prepared to
discuss and assess the views presented in the readings. Consistent attendance and thoughtful
participation will make up 20% of the final grade. As the use of laptops and other electronic
devices in class can pose a distraction, I would ask that they not be employed.
2) One in-class presentation—15%. (Date: Depends on when you sign up to do one.)
3) Two 5-page papers, due by noon on Friday, October 26 and Monday, November 19 in the
Philosophy Department office (Dewey II)—20% each.
4) One 6-8 page paper, due by noon on Friday, December 21 in the Philosophy Department
office (Dewey II)—25%.
• Grades on late papers (i.e., those turned in at any point after they are due) will be lowered one
step (e.g., from A- to B+) each day.
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Items on Reserve in Neilson Library
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Philosophical Hermeneutics. Tr. and ed. David E. Linge. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1976.
———. Reason in the Age of Science. Tr. Frederick G. Lawrence. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press, 1981.
———. Truth and Method. Second revised edition. Tr. revised Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G.
Marshall. New York: Crossroad, 1989.
Hegel, G. W. F. Phenomenology of Spirit. Tr. A. V. Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1977.
Heidegger, Martin. Basic Writings. Ed. David Farrell Krell. Revised and expanded edition. New
York: HarperCollins, 1993.
———. Being and Time. Tr. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. New York: Harper and
Row, 1962.
———. Poetry, Language, Thought. Tr. Albert Hofstadter. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Jaspers, Karl. The Atom Bomb and the Future of Man. Tr. E. B. Ashton. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1961.
———. Philosophy of Existence. Tr. Richard F. Grabau. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1971.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Tr. Norman Kemp Smith. Unabridged edition. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1965.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Tr. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. Ed.
Kaufmann. New York: Random House (Vintage Books edition), 1968.
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