First-Year Research Seminar: Western Materialism

Catalog description

This course will offer a survey of seminal texts on materialism: the Western philosophical tradition which posits that external, physical reality exists prior to, and independently from, human (or other kinds of) consciousness. What has led to the development and success of such a view, given that many things that matter the most to us are seemingly immaterial: thoughts, ideas, emotions? Indeed, our lives do revolve around materiality in its myriad forms: our physical bodies are subject to violence and pleasure; stuff in our environment degrades––forests burn, glaciers melt; we interact with inanimate objects we grow attached to (or which oppress us). But wouldn’t insisting on the materiality of life reduce the complexity of our existence to brute matter? What case could be made in defense of materialism? In answering these questions, we will study the long genealogy of materialist thought, from ancient Epicurean philosophy through classical 19th century Marxism all the way to the contemporary New Materialism. We will explore the various philosophical strands and theoretical debates that are contained in, or are adjacent to, materialism (mind-body duality, empiricism vs. rationalism), along with the challenges posed to materialism from various angles (idealism, deconstruction, and––ostensibly––quantum mechanics). We will discover that materialism has something to say about current debates that include the ecological crisis and the effects of the Anthropocene, movements for social change, and the increasing ubiquity of virtual reality. Reading will include works by Lucretius, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Frantz Fanon, Silvia Federici, Anna Tsing, Jane Bennet, among others.