Philosophy of History from Kant to Foucault

Autumn Term 2011, ten weeks starting Thursday 6th October, 5pm-7pm.

For details of venue etc go to the London School of Philosophy website.

Course description

One of the distinctive features of much modern European philosophy has been reflection on the meaning of human history. How should we, as historical beings, understand ourselves and our place in history? Are we moving forward, and if so, how and to what? Or should we rather be looking back, to understand where we are now and how we got here? Or is the whole project misguided? This course will consider how some of the most important thinkers of the last 250 years have asked and answered these questions.

Students will need to be able to use the internet in order to access the materials which will be provided for this course.

Week-by-week breakdown

1. Philosophical history in the enlightenment and counter-enlightenment
2. Kant: universal history
3. Hegel: speculative history
4. Marx: historical materialism
5. Nietzsche: the uses and disadvantages of history for life
6. Nietzsche: genealogy and the critique of progress
7. Heidegger: existential historicity
8. Benjamin: messianic history
9. Adorno: history as catastrophe?
10. Foucault: historicity, genealogy and ‘the end of man’

Bibliography

Essay Titles (optional)

1. Is the teleological conception of history ‘philosophically indefensible’?
2. Why does Kant think there is progress in history? What sort of progress is involved?
3. Does Hegel think that history has ended?
4. Why does Hegel think that his account of world history is ‘the true theodicy’?
5. How Hegelian is Marx’s theory of history?
6. Is Nietzschean genealogy a form of historicism?
7. Why, according to Heidegger, is ‘Dasein historical in its being’?
8. ‘The past carries with it a secret index by which it is referred to redemption’ (Walter Benjamin). Discuss
9. ‘Universal history must be construed and denied.’ What does Adorno mean by this?
10. Critically evaluate Heidegger’s and/or Foucault’s reconstructions of Nietzsche’s account of the three ‘uses of history’.
11. What does Foucault mean when he speaks of the ‘end of man’?