This course attempts to make sense of:
- Kant’s third Critique,
- a selection of works in twentieth-century Continental philosophy, and
- the influence of the first on the second.
The basic thesis of the course is that the reception of Kant’s third Critique has had an enormous but ambiguous influence on Continental philosophy, from the twentieth century to the present. By “reception” and “influence” I don’t mean simple endorsement or borrowing. Various forms of reception and influence in the relevant sense are possible, from straight commentary to explicit rejection. Our goal will be to make out the reach and nature of this reception and influence in their various manifestations. In addition to an opportunity to engage with and reflect on Kant and Continental philosophy, the course will serve as a sort of laboratory for historically oriented work in philosophy.
Unit 1: Kant
Week 1.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, First Introduction | all | |
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, Introduction | all |
Week 1.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, “Analytic Of The Beautiful” | all |
Week 2.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, “Analytic Of The Sublime” | all |
Week 2.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, “Deduction,” pt. 1 | all |
Week 3.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, “Deduction,” pt. 2 | all | |
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, “Dialectic” | all |
Week 3.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Kant, Critique of Judgment, “Teleology” | all |
Unit 2: Commentary
Week 4.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Heidegger, Nietzsche | all | |
| Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals | all |
Week 4.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Gadamer, Truth and Method, pt. 1 | all |
Week 5.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Gadamer, “The Relevance of the Beautiful” | all | |
| Gadamer, Truth and Method, pt. 2 | all |
Week 5.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Lyotard, Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime | all |
Week 6.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Derrida, The Truth in Painting (excerpt) | all |
Week 7.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Derrida, “Economimesis” | all |
Unit 3: Appropriation
Week 7.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Adorno, Aesthetic Theory Lectures 17–21 | all | |
| Adorno, Aesthetic Theory Lectures 1–5 | all |
Week 8.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, pt. 1 | all |
Week 8.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, pt. 2 | all |
Week 9.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Arendt, Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy | all | |
| Zerilli, ‘We Feel Our Freedom’ | all |
Week 9.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Lyotard, “The Sublime And The Avant Garde” | all | |
| Lyotard, “What Is Postmodernism?” | all |
Week 10.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Nancy, “The Sublime Offering” | all |
Week 10.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| De Man, “Kant And Schiller” | all | |
| De Man, “Phenomenality And Materiality” | all |
Week 11.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Ranciere, “The Aesthetic Revolution and Its Outcomes” | all | |
| Ranciere, “The Distribution of the Sensible” | all |
Unit 4: Teleology
Week 11.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Jonas, Phenomenon Of Life | all |
Week 12.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Canguilhem, Knowledge of Life | all | |
| Weber and Varela, “Life after Kant” | all |
Unit 5: Rejection
Week 12.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Levinas, “Reality and Its Shadow” | all |
Week 13.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Deleuze, Essays Critical and Clinical (excerpt) | all | |
| Deleuze, Kant’s Critical Philosophy (excerpt) | all |
Week 13.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Bourdieu, Distinction | all |
Week 14.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Armstrong, Effects of Blackness | all | |
| Lloyd, “Under Representation” | all |
Unit 6: Unconscious reception
Week 14.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Gadamer, Truth and Method, pt. 3 | all |
Week 15.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” | all | |
| Husserl, Letter to Hofmannsthal | all | |
| Marquard, “Kant and the Turn to Aesthetics” | all |
Unit 7: The historiography of the reception
Week 15.2
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Schaeffer, Art of the Modern Age, pt. 1 | all | |
| Schaeffer, Art of the Modern Age, pt. 2 | all |
Week 16.1
| Reading | Assignment | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Bernstein, The Fate Of Art | all | |
| Cascardi, Consequences of Enlightenment | all |