20th Century Continental Social Philosophy:
The Frankfurt School and Foucault [L6]
Spring 2014-2015
Syllabus
Overview: This module focuses on two important strands in 20th Century Continental Social
Philosophy. In the first half of the course, we look at the work of the Frankfurt School
(especially that of Theodor Adorno). We consider the ambitions of “Critical Theory” as a
philosophical enterprise and its application in the criticism of culture and society. The second
half of the course will be devoted to the work of Michel Foucault. We will look at Foucault’s
attempts to explain social phenomena (e.g., sexual practices and identities, the treatment of
mental and other forms of illness, prisons and other forms of punishment) in a genealogical
fashion.
Lecturer/ Tutors: The lecturer is Dr. Andrew Huddleston (a.c.huddleston@gmail.com). If you
have any questions about the material or the organization of the course, please contact him. The
tutors are ****.
Lectures: The lectures for this module will be in **** on Thursdays at 2PM.
Seminars: The seminars for this module will be in **** on Thursdays at 3PM.
Assessment:
Essays (BA): For this module, you will be assessed on the basis of two essays (combined total of
3000 words). Included below is a list of essay questions. One essay must be from Section A and
one must be from Section B. Neither essay should be shorter than 1200 words. If you wish to
write on a different question, you should seek my permission (or your tutor’s permission) in
advance. The first essay will be due on **** and the second essay will be due on ****.
Essays (MA): For this module, you will be assessed on the basis of two essays (combined total
of 3700 words). Included below is a list of essay questions. One essay must be from Section A
and one must be from Section B. Neither essay should be shorter than 1500 words. If you wish
to write on a different question, you should seek my permission (or your tutor’s permission) in
advance. See the MA Handbook for the essay deadlines.
Moodle:
Electronic copies of certain course materials will be available through Moodle, at
http://moodle.bbk.ac.uk. You will need your ITS login name and password to enter.
Readings:
For a general introduction to Adorno, see Gillian Rose, The Melancholy Science: An
Introduction to the Thought of Theodor W. Adorno (Verso, 2013 [reprint]) or see Brian
O’Connor, Adorno (Routledge, 2013).
For a general introduction to Foucault, see Gary Gutting, Foucault: A Very Short Introduction
(Oxford, 2005).
The readings for each week are as listed below. Most weeks, I list secondary readings. These are
not required, but will be useful if you want to go into more depth, or if you plan to write an
essay on the topic at issue.
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PART I: The Frankfurt School
Week 1: Foundations and Approach
Fred Rush, “Conceptual Foundations of Early Critical Theory” in The Cambridge Companion to
Critical Theory, ed. Fred Rush (Cambridge, 2004).
Adorno, “The Essay as Form,” in Notes to Literature, Vol. I, trans. Shierry Weber Nicholson
(Columbia, 1991).
Week 2: Critical Theory and Ideology Critique
Raymond Geuss, The Idea of a Critical Theory (Cambridge, 1981), Ch. 1, “Ideology”.
Secondary Reading:
The Melancholy Science: An Introduction to the Thought of Theodor W. Adorno (Verso, 2013
[reprint]), Ch. 5.
Week 3: Dialectic of Enlightenment and Fascism
T.W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, The Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans, Edmund Jephcott
(Stanford, 2002), “Preface,” “The Concept of Enlightenment,” “Elements of Anti-Semitism:
Limits of Enlightenment” .
Secondary Reading:
Julian Roberts, “The Dialectic of Enlightenment” in The Cambridge Companion to Critical
Theory, ed. Fred Rush (Cambridge, 2004).
Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, (California, 1973), Ch. 5.
Week 4: Culture Industry and Popular Culture
T.W. Adorno, “On Popular Music” in his Essays on Music, ed. Richard Leppert, trans. Susan
Gillespie (California, 2002).
T.W. Adorno, “Cultural Criticism and Society” in his Prisms, trans. Samuel and Shierry Weber
(MIT, 1981).
Secondary Reading:
Douglas Kellner, “Theodor W. Adorno and the Dialectics of Mass Culture,” in Adorno: A
Critical Reader, ed. Nigel Gibson and Andrew Rubin.
Week 5: Art and the Truth About the Social World
T.W. Adorno, “Why Is the New Art So Hard to Understand,” in his Essays on Music, ed.
Richard Leppert, trans. Susan Gillespie (California, 2002).
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Rose Rosengard Subotnik, “The Challenge of Contemporary Music,” in her Developing
Variations, (Minnesota, 1991).
Secondary Reading:
Raymond Geuss, “Art and Criticism in Adorno’s Aesthetics,” European Journal of Philosophy
6:3 (1998).
PART II: Foucault
Week 6: Genealogy
Michel Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow
(Pantheon, 1984), p. 76-100.
Michael Forster, “Genealogy” in American Dialectic 1:2 (2011).
May be available online at:
http://www.americandialectic.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/FORSTER-GENEALOGYV1N2.pdf
Week 7: ‘Madness’
Michel Foucault, “The Great Confinement” and “The Birth of the Asylum” in The Foucault
Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (Pantheon, 1984), p. 123-168.
(Note: These chapters are drawn from Foucault’s Madness and Civilization and can also be
found there.)
Secondary Reading:
Gary Gutting, Michel Foucault’s Archaeology of Scientific Reason, (Cambridge, 1989), Ch. 2.
Week 8: Prisons and Punishment
Michel Foucault, “The Body of the Condemned,” “Docile Bodies,” “The Means of Correct
Training,” and “Panopticism” in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (Pantheon, 1984), p.
169-213.
(Note: These chapters are drawn from Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and can also be found
there.)
Secondary Reading:
Gary Gutting, Foucault: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2005), Ch. 8.
Week 9: Medicine
Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic, trans. A.M Sheridan Smith (Vintage Books, 1994),
“Preface,” Ch. 1, “Spaces and Classes” and Ch. 2, “A Political Conciousness.”
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Secondary Reading:
Gary Gutting, Michel Foucault’s Archaeology of Scientific Reason, (Cambridge, 1989), Ch. 3.
Week 10: Sexuality
Michel Foucault, “We ‘Other Victorians’” and “The Repressive Hypothesis” in The Foucault
Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (Pantheon, 1984), p. 291-330
(Note: These chapters are drawn from Foucault’s The History of Sexuality: An Introduction,
Vol. I and can also be found there).
Secondary Reading:
Tamsin Spargo, Foucault and Queer Theory, (Icon Books, 1999).
Essay Questions
Section A
1. ‘Philosophical truth-seeking should be neither “systematic” nor “scientific”’. Discuss with
reference to Adorno’s philosophical outlook and methodology.
2. Why is false consciousness problematic? Is it always a bad thing?
3. What is the ‘dialectic of enlightenment’ and what light does it seek to shed on the origins of
fascism?
4. Are any of Adorno’s criticisms of popular culture justified?
5. What does Adorno mean when he claims that serious art is ‘autonomous’? How, if it all, is
this compatible with art’s imbeddedness in a social world, and with serious art’s potential for
criticizing that social world?
Section B
6. Foucault intends his genealogical investigations to have a critical edge, destabilizing present
institutions and practices. Does he run afoul of the so-called ‘genetic fallacy,’ deciding the
present value of something based on its origins?
7. ‘Many of [Foucault’s] arguments fly in the face of empirical evidence...many of [his]
arguments are oversimplifications’ (H.C. Eric Midelfort). How should Foucault reply?
8. Can we understand the notion of ‘the healthy’ in a value-free way?
9. Has punishment over the past several centuries become more humane? Discuss with reference
to Foucault’s writings on punishment.
10. “The sodomite had been a temporary aberration; the homosexual was now a species” (M.
Foucault). Discuss.
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