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This module approaches contemporary philosophy not chronologically, as a history of ideas, but in terms of some of the major issues of contemporary life that philosophers have attempted to address. For each of these issues, we will read a classic work by one important thinker. Thus the emphasis of this module will be on depth rather than breadth. The issues and thinkers/works studied will be taken from at least three of the following:
1) the role of technology in modern life: Heidegger, ‘The Question concerning Technology’;
2) the social and psychological effects of capitalism: Simmel, Philosophy of Money;
3) the sexualization of the self: Foucault, History of Sexuality, vol. 1;
4) colonialism and racism: Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks;
5) the foundations of morality: MacIntyre, After Virtue;
6) the possibility of religious belief: Kearney, Anatheism.
These works and thinkers exemplify some of the distinctive approaches and concerns of twentieth-century movements in philosophy such as Neokantianism, post-metaphysical “thinking,” historicism, Marxism, post-colonialism, and postmodern Christian thought.
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CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
