Contemporary Thought (20033)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year: 3rd
Term: 3rd
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication:
Teaching language or languages: Spanish
Teaching Staff: Fernando Pérez-Borbujo Álvarez/Antonino Firenze

1. Presentation of the subject

Philosophical problems of the contemporary world and their historical premises. An approach to contemporary philosophy of science, ethics, politics and law.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

Knowledge about the main philosophical movements of the 19th century Become familiar with the main topics of the philosophical thought in the 19th century: critic of reason, nihilism, Marxism, vitalism, existentialism, individualism Acquire the technical vocabulary and the conceptual and categorial tools used by the philosophers Acquire a critical and historical consciousness about the 19th century roots found in the 20th and 21st century contemporary thought

Analysis and understanding of the compulsory reading texts Have oral and written communication skills to talk about the topics and authors of the subject Ability to take part in a public debate, talking for and against different thesis in controversy Initiation to academic research writing academic papers (articles, reviews) and following all the formal criteria required

3. Contents

The aim of this subject is to offer an exposition, knowledge and analysis of the main philosophical movements happening in the 19^th century, which are the base for the gestation of the 20^th-century philosophy. Starting from Fichte's The Doctrine of Science, the founding document of German Idealism, we will go through the works of its two main representatives (Schelling and Hegel), thanks to whom Europe reaches one of the highest tops of its philosophical production, from where it contemplates numerous movements that will emerge from then onwards as epigonal replication and opposition developments. The Left Hegelianism, founded by Marx, Engels and Feverbach, deserves a special mention for its criticism to the German Idealism's speculative role and its claim for a new materialism and a new concept for revolutionary and intrahistorical reason.

Shopenhauer, and Kierkegaard later, criticizing as well the German Idealism and its idea of an absolute rationalism, claim, on the contrary, the inalienable uniqueness of the individual thinker and the real discontinuity among the different dimensions of a living person (Kierkegaard's aesthetic, ethical and religious modes) and the central role of will (in regard to Shopenhauer).

Finally, Kierkegaard's criticism to the German Idealism paves the way for one of the most lucid critics of Modernity: Nietzsche. He gathers, in a tight line, all European culture's the contradictions, deficiencies and defects which will burst in during the 20^th century in a convulsive way (world wars, avant-gardes, western nihilism, research of new ways to create values...).

Thus the subject tries to prepare the student to have a better understanding of the 20^th-centrury philosophy's cultural, philosophical and intellectual roots (structuralism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, analytic philosophy, pragmatics...).

The subject is divided into large blocks, each of which will take about four sessions, in which the historical background and the period's distinctive features will be explained in order to focus on some of the most representative texts of the authors studied, emphasizing the chosen fragments of the compulsory readings which may appear on the exam along with class explanations.

 

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.

4. Assessment

*

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

*

5.2. Complementary bibliography

*

5.3. Teaching resources

*

6. Metodology

*

7. Planning of activities

*