Course Description

Philosophy has been a central element in the emergence of modern German culture. In the late eighteenth century, German philosophy was an integral part of the broader European Enlightenment, itself closely linked to the rise of modern empirical science. Under the impact of the profound historical transformations brought about by the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, a distinctive constellation of German philosophical thought emerged at the end of the eighteenth century - one that left a lasting imprint on subsequent philosophy far beyond Germany.

This philosophy course addresses the historical reality of this ‘German moment of philosophy’ in two successive phases. In the first part, we trace the emergence and full deployment of German philosophy from its Kantian beginnings to Hegel’s grand yet fragile synthesis, seeking to grasp both its richness and its internal tensions. In the second part, we explore the later renewal of German philosophy in the late nineteenth century and its historical tragedy in the twentieth. This includes a discussion of the new beginnings of philosophy since the mid-nineteenth century onward, from Marx to Nietzsche. Rosa Luxemburg, with her revolutionary critique of capitalism and commitment to democratic socialism, is studied alongside Martin Heidegger, an established pro-Nazi philosopher. We also examine Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, the leading thinkers of the Frankfurt School who were driven into exile, and Hannah Arendt, as key thinkers navigating the crises of the twentieth century.

Finally, post-World War II developments in philosophy, exemplified by Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas, will be examined as pathways out of the self-destructive turn that the “German moment of philosophy” had taken in the first decades of the twentieth century, and as transitions toward an emerging world philosophy. In this context, we will also engage with the works of two contemporary philosophers, Elisabeth List and Rahel Jaeggi.

The course is grounded in contemporary efforts to rethink philosophy from a global perspective. It focuses on the tension between the Enlightenment legacy of a universalizing human philosophy and the project of a national culture, as well as on the tension between classicist rationalism and romantic emotionalism in the construction of German philosophical traditions. From the perspective of a distinctly German version of the dialectic of Enlightenment, nineteenth- and twentieth-century German philosophers will be studied in context - combining close readings of key texts with a reconstruction of their historical backgrounds and mutual interactions.

Download Syllabus (printable PDF incl. day-to-day schedule)

Recommended Course Combinations (Selection)

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