PHIL 631 Introduction to Philosophy and the History of Ideas

Transcription

1 Course Outline Fall Semester 2015 PHIL 631 Introduction to Philosophy and the History of Ideas Compulsory course for the concentration track Course Teacher: Dr. Abdelaziz Labib Credit Value: 3 Pre-requisites: No pre-requisites Co-requisites: No co-requisites Course Duration: 14 weeks; Semester 1 Total Student Study Time: 126 hours, including 42 contact hours of lectures and seminars. AIMS 1. To enrich systematic in-depth philosophical research with an approach open to knowledge from science and the humanities made available by methods in the History of Ideas. 2. To provide students with both an overview and in-depth study of the History of Ideas. Students will learn how to carry out an interpretation of paradigms using analysis and the deduction of their elements from within the paradigm. At the same time, students will learn to explain these paradigms from the outside in light of their originating context and the evolutions of their intellectual issues at the time of their reception, as well as their major subsequent readers. 3. Students will acquire a secure and static textual approach to reconstructing the philosophical trace in and of itself in terms its original straightforward intention. They will at the same time develop a dynamic approach and become aware of points of continuity and rupture between philosophical traditions, including the reasons for the growth and development of a paradigm and its plain and tacit issues. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOME The program aims to prepare students to undertake academic research with confidence and competence by providing them with the knowledge to use philosophical concepts and theories. Students will at the end of the course be able to raise questions and key issues in philosophy and the history of ideas, and to provide students with the following specific skills: 1) Subject-specific skills: Possess an open methodology on multiple and comprehensive approaches: conceptual and argumentative approaches (philosophy); doxography (the description of the views and the history of ideas); and the scientific and structuralist approach (scientific paradigms). Learn to read, deconstruct, and reconstruct complex intellectual systems Use a range of active elements that form intellectual systems to probe the tacit relations that lead from one to another. This will be done while ensuring the autonomy of spheres of knowledge and distinguishing their methods from each other.

2 2) Core academic skills: Understand the major philosophical artefacts and gain a comprehensive idea of the overall geometry of philosophical methods and look closely at the changes to these Philosophical artefacts across historical time, taking into account their complex dialectic and interpretive contexts. This is what gives the innovative academic the ability to combine the philosophical view and critique with the exploration of the history of ideas. Understand that that which is philosophical in intellectual, literary, or other artefacts is not necessarily of philosophical intent in essence (Michel Foucault for example). 3) Personal and key skills: Student proficiency at close reading and examination of philosophical texts. Proficiency in explaining texts from the outside in light of their developments and subsequent receptions. Competence at making comparisons with reference to one philosophical text between the context of its writing and the texts that rely on it and subsequently interpreted it. LEARNING/TEACHING METHODS Weekly lectures that will raise the key questions about the relationship between philosophy and the history of ideas. They will do so by raising the major intellectual problems and puzzles caused by this relationship and the potential prospects for resolving them. Lectures try to encourage students to read and interpret sources and gain knowledge for themselves. Seminars give students an opportunity to practice collective academic endeavors and enjoy teamwork. Students will develop the skills to advance logical arguments and lead free discussion and scientific criticism on the basis of the key texts. In each seminar, two or more students will be assigned to present one of the texts, which will be followed by group discussion. ASSIGNMENTS Students will be asked to write short papers (around 1,500 words) whose specific topic will be given to them at the beginning of the class and submitted at the end of the class. The intention here is to develop philosophical writing ability over time and in line with rules for peer-reviewed philosophical articles (introduction, analysis of the thesis and antithesis, body of the work, conclusion). Whatever the sources for this homework, the work must be one s own. In seminars, students will be asked to prepare a short report on one of the subjects in the syllabus of 1,500 to 2,000 words. Preferably, students will work in groups of two or three, each student working on one element of the presentation. Students should make their degree of participation in the work evident when done collaboratively. The aim here is to give students practice in making oral presentations and getting their ideas across clearly. Two written examinations on the knowledge and critical skills acquired from the course. One is a mid-term and the other a final. 2

3 Student achievements in the preparation of bibliographies, summaries, or oral presentation. Student participation in the discussions with questions and new facts, and by demonstrating their ability to run discussion sessions and work collectively. This will not be taken into account when giving the final grade. ASSESSMENT Students will be assessed on the extent to which they have absorbed the material and their research initiatives in two ways: Short essay of 500 words (20%) Essay between words (40%) Final exam of 2 hours (40%) SYLLABUS PLAN The course deals with two main themes: Theme I: Difference and complementarity between philosophy and the history of ideas: 1. Preliminary definitions: a) Philosophy, its internal intentionality and overall paradigm; b) History of Ideas: the concept and its origins and development 2. The systematic approach to the philosophical artefact in terms of its formation and its interpretation according to a logic of causes 3. The problematic approach to the philosophical artefact in terms of its questions and issues as well as its interpretation according to a logic of values and ends Theme II (case study): The philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau between explaining its system and interpreting its intellectual issues: 1. Rousseau s anthropological and political system 2. Rousseau and his contemporaries: from Voltaire to Kant 3. Rousseau s place in the philosophy of the French Revolution 4. Rousseau s reception in modern Arab thought 5. Ernst Cassirer as a reader of Rousseau 6. Rousseau s thought between his liberal and Marxist interpreters The classes are scheduled as follows: Week 1: Philosophy and its history: aim, method, and system. Authenticity of the systematic approach and its limits Week 2: The history of ideas: an exploratory perspective, abstraction of issues, limits of the next came approach Week 3: Knowledge of causes and knowledge of ends Week 4: Philosophy and the history of ideas: completion of the system and opening of the issues 3

4 Week 5: Why Jean Jacques Rousseau? Week 6: Rousseau and his major artefacts Week 7: Foundations of Rousseau s philosophy of history: Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men Mid-term examination (two hours) Week 8: Foundations of Rousseau s political philosophy: The Social Contract Week 9: Foundations of Rousseau s philosophy of education and citizenship: Emile Week 10: Rousseau and his contemporaries: from Voltaire to Kant Week 11: Reason and event: Rousseau s thought in the discourse of the French Revolution Week 12: Rousseau in the thought of the Arab Nahda: selectivity, fabrication, or exoneration? Week 13: Ernst Cassirer reinterprets Rousseau Week 14: Rousseau between his liberal and Marxist interpreters: Rousseau as the philosopher of crisis. Final exam (two hours) INDICATIVE READING LIST ابن خلدون املقدمة تحقيق عبد السالم الشدادي الدار البيضاء بيت العلوم والفنون مونتاني املحاوالت )1580(. ديكارت رينيه تأمالت ميتافيزيقية في الفلسفة األولى ترجمة كمال الحاج بيروت عويدات فولتير مداخل منتخبة من القاموس الفلسفي املنقول )1764(. فولتير الرسائل الفلسفية ترجمة عادل الغضبان القاهرة دار املعارف ديدرو وداملبير»مداخل«منتخبة من االنسيكلوبيديا ) ( فولتير فلسفة التاريخ )1765(. هردر من أجل فلسفة أخرى للتاريخ )1774( 4 هردر أفكار ألجل فلسفة تاريخ لإلنسانية ) (

5 روسو خطاب في أصل التفاوت وفي أسسه بين البشر )1755(. روسو العقد االجتماعي )1762(. كانط جوابا على سؤال»ما هي األنوار «( 1784(. لوفجوي محاوالت في تاريخ األفكار )1948(. هيغل محاضرات في فلسفة التاريخ ) (: مانهايم اإليديولويجيا واليوتوبيا )1929( ماكس هوركهايمر بدايات فلسفة التاريخ البورجوازية )1930(. ريمون آرون مدخل إلى فلسفة التاريخ )1938(. بول هازار أزمة الوعي األوروبي )1961(. توماس كون بنية الثورات العلمية )1962(. ألبرت حوراني الفكر العربي في عصر النهضة بيروت سعيد ادوارد الثقافة واالمبريالية بيروت شرابي هشام املثقفون العرب والغرب بيروت غروتويزن برنار فلسفة الثورة الفرنسية فكوياما فرانسيس نهاية التاريخ واإلنسان األخير بيروت فوكو ميشيل الكلمات واألشياء مركز االنماء العربي فوكو ميشيل تاريخ الجنون في العصر الكالسيكي املركز الثقافي العربي

6 Alquié, F., La découverte métaphysique de l homme chez Descartes, Paris, Vrin, Althusser, L., Politics and History: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx, London, Blackburm, S., Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy, Oxford, Cassirer, E., The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, Princeton University Press, Cassirer, E., The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bloomington, Indiana, Colletti, L., From Rousseau to Lenin. Studies In Ideology And Society, Ferry, The System of Philosophies of History, University of Chicago Press, Flint, Robert, The Philosophy of History in French and Germany, Endinburgh and London, Foucault, M., The Archaeology of Knowledge, publ. Routledge, ثانيا: أجنبية Garrard, G., Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment: A Republican Critique of the Philosophes, State University of New York, Goldscmidt, Anthropologie et politique. Les principes du système de Rousseau, Paris, Gouhier, H., Rousseau et Voltaire: portraits dans deux miroirs, Paris, Vrin, Grace, E. The Challenge of Rousseau, Cambridge University Press; Gueroult, Descartes' Philosophy Interpreted According to the Order of Reasons, University of Minnesota, Guha, R., History at the Limit of World-History, Columbia University Press, Hacking, Ian, Historical Ontology, Harvard University Press, 2004 Israel I. Jonathan, History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre, Princeton University Press, Israel I. Jonathan, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, , Oxford UniversityOxford University Press, Israel I. Jonathan, Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy, Princeton University Press, Lamont, C., The philosophy of Humanism, 1949, 8th edition: Lemon, M, M. C., The Philosophy of History: A Guide for Students, Routledge, 2003.

7 Lovejoy, A. O., Reflections on the History of Ideas, Mandelbaum, M., The History of Ideas; Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy, in History and Theory, Blackwell Publishing for Wesleyan University, Melzer, A., M., The Natural Goodness of Man: On the System of Rousseau's Thought, University of Chicago Press, Parrochia, La Raison systématique: essai d une morphologie des systèmes philosophiques, Vrin, Popkin, Richard H., The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Descartes, New York, Evanston and London: Harper & Row, 1964 Qvortrup, J., The Political Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Impossibility of Reason, Manchester University Press, Said, E., Culture and Imperialism, New York, Scott, J. T., Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Rousseau: Critical Assessments of Leading Political Philosophers, Skinner, Q., Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas, in History and Theory, Blackwell Publishing for Wesleyan University, Starobnski, J., Jean Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction, University of Chicago Press: London, Talmon, J. L., The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, Frederick A. Praeger, Volpe (Della), G., Rousseau and Marx, Vuillemein, J., Necessity or Contingency. The Master Ofof Argument, CSLI Publications,