CHID495, Spr-2010 syllabus
Kant’s Critical Philosophy: Reading the Critiques in the Context of Critical Theory
Course
Time
Place
CHID 495 A
Mon/Wed, 1:30-3:30pm
PAR 310
Instructor
Email
Hours
Terry Schenold
schenold@uw.edu
Tue, 10am-12pm
Description
Immanuel Kant is not a flashy or expressive thinker – he is the philosopher-analogue to the figure of
Giotto di Bondone, the Italian painter and architect who when asked to demonstrate his skill by the
Pope drew a circle as perfect as those produced with a compass, free-hand in red paint. Kant is patient,
systematic, technical and precise, and his form of philosophical innovation is generated not out of
conceptual creativity or affective figuration, but in the enhancement of thought through its focus, much
like a sextant enabling our given powers of perception to access cosmic order for navigating a chaotic
and expansive sea. In his own day, he was referred to as the “All-to-nothing crushing Kant” for his
limiting effect on the metaphysical ambitions of philosophy, and the modern philosopher Gilles Deleuze
remarked on the “suffocating atmosphere” of Kant’s work. Nevertheless, the shadow of Kant is cast
everywhere in the Western tradition, and reaction to some aspect of his work was the starting point for
many of the unstated canonical figures whose work is encountered under the heading of Critical Theory
in the humanities today. And for all the crushing and suffocation expressed by critics, Kant’s aim from
beginning to end was a thoroughly technical appreciation and critical understanding of our ability to
grasp the infinite novelty of nature.
This course is designed first to guide students unfamiliar with Immanuel Kant through an intensive,
technical reading of his three major Critiques, and second, to put students in a better position to see the
nature of Kant’s significance in critics they may encounter in courses on Critical Theory or those that
make use of it. The reading and assignments are shaped to give a sense of the development and
continuity of Kant’s work and will try to provide students with the means to pursue further study with
more confidence. The general aim is to give readers a clearer picture of Kant’s arguments that is based
in a guided struggle with the primary texts through specific key passages. To this end, the primary
emphasis will be, at every stage, on answering the questions of reading and understanding: How can
we understand what Kant said? Questions of how the texts connect with other extra-textual themes or
discourses, or how they can be applied will be secondary to developing a textually grounded
understanding of Kant’s arguments and their immediate implications.
Required Texts
1. Critique of Pure Reason. Eds & Trans. Paul Guyer & Allen Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997
ISBN: 0521657296
2. Critique of Practical Reason. Ed. Mary J Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997
ISBN: 0521599628
3. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Ed. Paul Guyer. Trans. Guyer & Eric Matthews. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 2000
ISBN: 0521348927
4. Course Reader: scanned material drawn from Kuehn’s bio of Kant, excerpts from 3 critics
(Bourdieu, Foucault, Deleuze)
http://staff.washington.edu/schenold/chid495a/
CHID495, Spr-2010 syllabus
Work
Participants will be expected to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Come to class prepared to participate in discussion.
Complete weekly quizzes on assigned reading (every Mon, weeks 2-9, for 8 total).
Write a commentary (4-5 pgs, due week 5) explicating a passage chosen from a selection provided.
Lead a session in explication and discussion of a passage (groups of ~3 people, due allotted week).
Write an essay (6-7 pgs, due Finals time) exploring some implications of a passage in Critique of the
Power of Judgment for a claim in Foucault, Bourdieu, or Deleuze.
Evaluation
Participation & Quizzes: 25%
Passage Commentary: 25%
Group-Lead Explication & Discussion: 25%
Essay: 25%
Schedule
Week 1 - Kant in the History of Philosophy
M:
In what sense is Kant “critical”? Philosophical Criticism to Critical Philosophy: Bacon &Kant;
Kant the professor and 18thC problems of knowledge, the human understanding
W:
The Critical Turn; The aim overview of the first Critique
reading: Preface & Introduction <B> (pp.106-124; 136-152)
optional: David Hume, Sections I-V in Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Weeks 2 to 4 – Critique of Pure Reason, Explication of the Faculty of Understanding
2) Transcendental Philosophy & the Form of Sensibility
reading: Transcendental Aesthetic & Logic (pp.172-192); GROUP 1
3) The Concepts We Think With
reading: Transcendental Analytic (pp. 201-225, 245-266); GROUP 2
4) Dialectic as a Logic of Illusion & Reason as Desire
reading: Transcendental Dialectic (pp. 354-365, 384-410, excerpts on antinomies; Doctrine of
Method); GROUP 3
Weeks 5 & 6 – Critique of Practical Reason, Resolution of the Antinomy of Freedom
5) Text in entirety (120 pages); GROUP 4
COMMENTARY DUE
6) Discussion of Kant’s examples illustrating the reality of Freedom; GROUP 5
Weeks 7 to 9 – Critique of the Power of Judgment, The Principle of Reflective Judgment
7) Reflective Judgment, The usage of “Aesthetic” and “Taste” in Kant
reading: Introduction, Analytic of the Beautiful* (pp. 59-127); GROUP 6
8) Purposiveness without Purpose
reading: Analytic of Sublime, Pure Aesthetic Judgments,* Dialectic of* (pp.128-227); GROUP 7
9) Reflective Reasoning
reading: Teleological Power of Judgment (all, 231-284); GROUP 8
Week 10 – The Critical Philosophy & Critical Theory
10) Foucault on episteme (from Order of Things), Bourdieu on taste (from Distinction), Deleuze on
representation (from Difference and Repetition)
ESSAY DUE
http://staff.washington.edu/schenold/chid495a/