ISF 100B: Fall 2003
Week I: Study Questions
1. What is the relevance of the Medieval Islamic philosophers with respect to Plato and
Aristotle?
2. Which sciences does Al Farabi’s Kitab al-Madinat al-fadilah treat?
3. Al-Farabi’s Kitab al-Madinat al-fadilah is a political theory. What does it propose?
4. Where is the “soul” located in al-Farabi’s system?
5. What is the function of the “soul” and what is its nature in al-Farabi?
6. What is typical about the predominant medieval philosophical systems?
7. Define al-Farabi’s ontology, epistemology, and ethics.
8. What is essential about the idealist tradition and the materialist tradition?
9. What are the political advantages of the plurality of faculties in a “soul’?
10. Dante is an heir to the Islamic/Thomistic tradition. Why?
11. How do Descartes, Spinoza, and Vico revolutionize the concept of the “soul”?
12. Discuss the concept of “consciousness” in relation to “soul” in modern idealism.
13. Explain the rise of aesthetics in the 18th century.
14. What is essential about Roman Law and Germanic Law?
15. Psychoananlysis is a “northern” intellectual product. Explain.
16. Discuss Kant and Hegel from the point of view of a sociology of knowledge.
17. What is problematical about “the history of ideas”?
18. What is the relation between the “idea” and “the French revolution”?
19. Which “ism”, idealism or materialism, lends itself more to a democratic project?
20. “Modern art” is shorthand for “northern art.” How does it differ from pre-modern art?
Week II: Study Questions
1. What is the relation of capitalism to democracy?
2. “Knowledge” and “action” are key concepts of the dominant philosophical traditions in
Europe. Explain the two concepts.
3. Spinoza proposes a pantheistic philosophy. How does it differ from Aristotelianism? The
concepts of “natura naturans” or “natura naturata” may support you in your explanation, whereby
the first one consists of one substance, the second of two substances.
4. Platonism, Neo-Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Aristotelian Averroism are traditions which
are central to the “northern” philosophical and political project. Although Plato’s political theory
presupposes a political elite (consisting of both men and women), Neo-platonism, more than
Aristotelianism, lends itself to a non-elitist democratic project. Why? Again, the theory of
substance (versus substances) may be useful for your answer.
5. What do the most important European “philosophers” have in common?
6. “The Individual” is a necessary production of capitalism. Explain
7. “Reason” is not only a philosophical concept, but also a political one. Explain.
8. Explain Nietzsche’s rejection of reason.
9. What are the implications of “reason” for a theory of geopolitics?
10. Explain Nietzsche’s postulate: “Lieber will noch der Mensch das Nichts wollen, als nicht
wollen.”
11. What are the implications of Nietzsche’s biological materialism with respect to a theory of
the soul?
12. The immortality of the soul is one of the key pillars of Christian theology. It is tied to the
concept of t he immateriality of the soul. Nietzsche and Freud re-materialize the soul. What do
they have in common with Descartes, and how do they differ from Descartes?
13. Nietzsche considers democracy a religion. Explain.
14. What is Nietzsche’s own religion?
15. Nietzsche’s theory of history lends itself to a cyclical vision. Explain.
16. How does Nietzsche differ from Hegel with respect to a theory of history and a theory of
culture.
17. Explain the rise of aesthetics in the 18th century.
18. What are the unintended consequences of Nietzsche’s project?
19. Apply Nietzsche’s conceptual framework to a theory of international relations.
20. From a Nietzschean perspective, explain the f act of colonialism.
21. What is Nietzsche’s attitude towards the European bourgeoisie?
22. What is Nietzsche’s and Freud’s attitude towards t he European working classes?
23. How do Nietzsche and Freud view the non-European continents?
24. Nietzsche and Freud use the term “Kultur.” What do they mean?
25. Which intellectual and artistic traditions in Europe react negatively to the Enlightenment?
26. Both Nietzsche and Freud belonged to Europe’s educated elite. What do they share?
27. By the nineteenth century, the papacy had lost considerable political and economic power.
What are the implications for the spheres of “knowledge” and “action’?
28. Explain the “instruments” in the organization of knowledge production of modernity.
Week III: Study Questions
1. Explain Freud’s concept of the family.
2. How does Freud distinguish between “health” and “illness”?
3. On the basis of your reading, explain Freud’s notion of women.
4. Freud uses the term “Kulturmensch.” What does it mean?
5. What are the implications of a theory of instincts for a theory of international relations?
6. Explain Carl Schmitt’s “tertium non datur.”
7. What accounts for the extraordinary attraction Nietzsche’s and Freud’s texts have to offer?
8. Explain the concept “Dialectic of the Enlightenment.”
9. How do Kant, Hegel, and Marx differ from Freud and Nietzsche in terms of their narrative
strategies?
10. Apply Gramsci’s theory of intellectuals to Freud and Nietzsche.
11. What is crucial about the upper bourgeoisie with respect to women?
12. What is the typical relation between upper bourgeoisie and lower bourgeoisie?
13. Two dimensions are central to Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. Which ones?
14. What is the key strategy of Freud’s texts?
15. In a “healthy” person, what is the nature and function of dreams?
16. What about the nature and function of dreams in the neurotic person?
17. How did Freud revolutionize the theory of the child?
18. Discuss Freud’s ontology. What are the implications for a political theory?
19. What is Freud’s theory of history?
20. What is the cause of most mental disorders, according to Freud?
21. The Pleasure Principle is a key concept in the Freudian system. Explain.
22. Freud operates with the principles of ontogeny and phylogeny. Explain.
23. Explain the “imago.”
24. What do the neurotic, the young child, and the non-Kulturmensch have in common?
25. What are the promises of Freud’s concept of the libido?
26. Explain Freud’s notion of “kulturkind”
27. What are the implications of Freud’s theory of sexuality for mothers?
28. Explain Freud’s theory of sublimation.
29. What is the relation between infantile sexuality and intellectual development, according to
Freud.
30. What are some of the basic contradictions of Freud’s system?
31. How did Levy Strauss correct Freud in his “The Savage Mind.” ?
32. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis excerted a great influence on “northern” anthropology.
Explain.
33. Freud has been a very powerful force in U.S. culture, particularly after world war II.
Explain.
34. Psychoanalysis is making profound inroads into contemporary Russian culture. Explain.
25. What is the relation of psychoanalysis to religion?
26. What is t he power of a theory of the unconscious?
27. What is the relation of “id” to “ego” and “superego” according to Freud?
28. What is Freud’s theory of love and friendship?