PHIL 386AContinental Philosophy

Catalog

One feature of some examples of "continental philosophy" is that it makes appeals to historicity. That is, on some accounts, forms of subjectivity, ethical norms, and significant cultural practices (e.g.) are only possible in light of some particular historical context, or can only be explained by appeal to historical processes. So in this course we are going to look at some cases of how appeals to historicity engage with philosophical accounts, in particular in the texts of Nietzsche, Foucault, and maybe Marx. Part of this will be looking at the accounts of particular phenomena; part of this will be reflection on what it means to identify a phenomenon as historical, and what narratives, forms of temporal extension, and constitutive practices are involved in historical understanding. Maybe we look at some secondary literature, too.