Subject Area: Philosophy

Examines some of the main themes and thinkers of Contemporary French and German philosophy that have influenced the way we think about the world, our place in the world, and our relations with each other. Themes this course may include are: interpretation, language, the limits of rationality, experience, history and subjectivity. By exploring and comparing how some important French and German philosophers take up these ideas we will examine how they challenge accepted wisdom about how the self dwells in and understands its world; the relation between meaning, human existence and tradition/history; and the relation between discourse, power, and subjectivity. The course traces the development of these ideas and their significance through the examination of the thought of key figures in recent european philosopher. Figures that may be examined are Heidegger, Gadamer, Honneth, Saussure, Derrida, Deleuze and Foucault.