Syllabus

Course information

Course

PHIL 409: Kant and the twentieth century

Term

Fall 2026

Meeting times

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00–11:15

Location

Goodman 110

Instructor

E. R. Jiménez (email)

Office hours

Tuesdays, 2:30–3:30, Sierra Tower 506; Wednesdays, 12:00–1:00, on Zoom, and by appointment

Description and objectives

Course description

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.

Course objectives

Our course has substantive and formal objectives.

• Substantively, we have two aims. The first is to come to some level of understanding of Kant’s views in the third Critiue. The second is to appreciate the reception of issues that emerge from the interpretation of the third Critique, most especially in twentieth-century Continental philosophy.
• Formally, our objective is to improve our capacities for reading comprehension, analysis of arguments, and written and oral communication, through the digestion and discussion of texts by, directly about, and indirectly about Kantian problems, through written and oral exercises in analysis of those texts.

Assignments and grading

Assignments

The focus of this course is philosophical commentary, and that’s just what you’re going to do. You’re going to compose unit commentaries for five of the seven units in the course outline. (A commentary on a text from the first unit is mandatory.) You’re going to synthesize two or three of these into a 2,000–2,500-word paper about the reception of Kant’s third Critique. And at the end of the semester you’re going to hand in a final portfolio of commentaries, along with the revised essay, and you’re going to complete an oral defense of your essay.

Addendum: Deadlines and grace periods (9/18)

Every deadline has a ten-day grace period. During the grace period, work may be handed in without penalty. After the grace period, work will not be accepted.

Addendum: December deadlines (9/18)

I have moved all December deadlines forward ten days.

Unit commentaries

For five of the course’s seven units, you’re going to compose a commentary on the material from that unit. Commentaries should be 700–900 words long. For each of the commentaries, you’re going to:

• select a passage of interest;
• provide a precise interpretation of it, along with specific textual evidence;
• consider a plausible alternative interpretation; and
• respond to this alternative.

One of the critical purposes of class time is to highlight areas and passage of interest, and describe possible interpretations of it, which is just one of the many reasons why regular attendance is essential.

Commentaries will be graded for completion only. A complete commentary accomplishes each of the four requirements stipulated above.

For the schedule of commentaries, see the course outline.

Revised essay and memo

You’re going to take two or three of your commentaries and revise them into a single 2,000–2,500-word essay. A natural synthesis would include a commentary on Kant and a commentary on some later figure who addresses the issue described in Kant, and your revised essay would be on the relation between Kant and the later figure.

Your revised essay should be accompanied by a memo describing how your understanding of Kant, the reception of Kant, and/or relevant substantive issues changed as you brought Kant and his reception into dialogue with each other. You should also describe what, in your view, remains difficult to make out about the issue or is unrresolved.

The revised essay and memo are due with your final portfolio of commentaries on December 15.

Oral exam

Toward the end of the semester, you’ll complete a 10–12-minute oral defense of your completed essay. I’ll ask you questions about your interpretation, the rival interpretation(s) you describe, other possible alternatives, and/or about related issues in Kant’s third Critique and its reception (nothing that wasn’t covered in the course).

The oral exam is intended to assess your understanding, not your quality as a performer. Confidence, speed, eye contact, polish, and other intangibles are not grading criteria.

Oral exams will take place during finals week, December 14–18. It is likely we’ll need to make use of time outside of our finals exam time for this purpose. We’ll discuss scheduling of the oral exam as the semester progresses.

Grading

Your grade will break down like this:

• Unit commentaries: 30%
  • Commentaries, five of them, are each thus the equivalent of 6% of your final grade, with no partial credit.
• Revised essay and revision memo: 40%
  • Your essay and memo will be graded out of a possible total of 20 points; each point is 2% of your final grade.
• Oral defense: 30%
  • Your defense will be graded out of a possible 10 points; each point is 3% of your final grade.

Rubrics

Evaluation for each of the assignments will follow these rubrics:

Unit commentaries

Commentaries are graded for completion; you get either a 1 (worth 6% toward your final grade) for a completed commentary or a 0 (worth 0%, of course). A complete commentary:

• engages directly with the relevant text;
• offers an interpretation;
• outlines an objection; and
• responds to that objection.

Commentaries must be at least 700 words to be accepted for completion.

Revised essay and revision memo

Your revised essay should be the single most sophisticated piece of philosophical work you do for this course this semester, and you should deliberately view it that way. You’re going to take two or three of your commentaries and build it into a full-fledged essay in which you:

• describe a particular interpretive issue in Kant’s third Critiue or its reception;
• give a precise interpretation of it;
• outline an objection or alternative interpretation; and
• respond to that objection or alternative.

The existence and quality of each of these parts is worth a fifth of your essay grade, with the revision memo worth the final fifth.

In the revision memo, you will describe:

• what changes your views underwent as you built the paper; and
• what relevant issues or questions, to your mind, remain unresolved.

Essays will be graded out of 20 points (each point worth 2% of your final grade), with each of the four components and the memo worth 4 points each. For each component:

Points	Description
0	You didn’t do it
1	You did it at all
2	You did it fairly well
3	You did it very well
4	You did it exceptionally well

Revised essays must be at least 2,000 words to be accepted; revision memos must be at least 300 words.

Oral exam

During your oral exam I’ll ask you about your essay and, potentially, about any of the unit commentaries you submit. Expect me to ask you about your reasons for viewing the issues as you do, and to challenge you by taking up an alternative perspective, on Kant’s third Critique and/or its reception.

Your oral exam will be graded for evidence of preparation, not quality of performance.

Your’ll be graded out of 10 points (each point being worth 3% of your final grade), along the following lines:

Points	Description
0	You weren’t prepared
1–2	You were barely prepared
3–4	You were slightly prepared
5–6	You were prepared
7–8	You were well prepared
9–10	You were exceptionally well prepared

Grading scale

Your final percentage grade will be rounded up to the nearest integer and your letter grade will be based on the following scale:

Percentage	Letter grade
95–100	A
90–95	A-
87–90	B+
83–87	B
80–83	B-
77–80	C+
73–77	C
70–73	C-
67–70	D+
63–67	D
60–63	D-
< 60	F

Policies

Attendance

I don’t monitor it, but you’re going to find that being in class is essential for completing the work, and that there is no substitute.

If you miss class for any reason, you don’t need to tell me about it. Check the calendar to keep abreast of what’s going on. Generally, I’ll put anything of significance on the calendar, but I’d recommend you make a friend in class in case you want a more thorough rundown of what you missed.

Late work, makeups, extra-credit, and other assignment-related anomalies

All unit commentaries have a ten-day no-penalty grace period. That means you can hand them in up to ten days late, without any deduction. My hope is that this policy manages all problems of this sort. Note that:

• There will be no ‘makeups’
• There will be no ‘extra credit’

How I interpret policies

I interpret rules under a guiding thought about fairness: that policies should be applied in the same way for everyone; that everyone should have the same shot. I never think in terms of how the interpretation of a policy affects you or any other student individually; I always think in terms of how it affects the class as a whole.

When you ask for a rule to be relaxed, then, I’m not thinking about whether to relax the rule for you, but whether it would be fair to relax the rule for everyone (or everyone similarly situated). Most of the time this comes down to the simple question whether the policy should even exist, and if your classmates have already been acting in accordance with the policy, then to suspend it after the fact would be unfair to them for the diligence they’ve demonstrated.

University and other policies

Important note about a possible work stoppage during the semester

The California Faculty Association (the union that represents all CSU faculty, including lecturer faculty, tenure-line faculty, coaches, counselors, and librarians) is in the midst of a difficult contract dispute with the CSU system-wide administration. In response to the CSU management’s stance, it is possible that the faculty union will call a strike or other work stoppage this term. I promise to inform the class as soon as possible of any disruption to our class meeting schedule. For further information about the issues involved in the strike, please see the resources at www.calfac.org and www.cfabargaining.org.

Missed classes for university-approved activities

If, while representing the university in an official curriculum-related, university-approved activity, you are required to miss classes, reach out to me to discuss next steps. Absence from class for official curriculum-related, university-approved activities does not relieve you from responsibility for any part of the course work required during your period of absence.

Academic integrity

Cheating is intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information or study aids in any academic exercise. When completing any work for this course—written or otherwise—assume that external assistance (e.g., books, notes, calculators, cell phones/cameras, other electronic devices, use of artificial intelligence, conversation with others) is prohibited unless I specifically say otherwise. You may not allow others to conduct research or prepare any work for you without advance authorization from the instructor. This includes but is not limited to the services of commercial term-paper companies or web sites. Substantial portions of the same academic work may not be submitted for credit in more than one course without authorization.

Fabrication is intentional falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.

Plagiarism is representing the words, ideas, or work of another as your own, in any academic exercise. You must identify every direct quotation by quotation marks, appropriate indentation, or other means of identification. Prompt acknowledgment is required when material from another source is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in your own words. Information obtained in one’s reading or research that is not common knowledge among students in the course must be acknowledged (this includes the use of artificial intelligence).

Facilitating academic dishonesty is intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic dishonesty.

Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a CSU campus is listed in Section 41301, Title 5, California Code of Regulations as an offense for which a student may be expelled, suspended or given a less severe disciplinary sanction. The full policy, including penalties, is in CSUN’s Academic Integrity Policy.

You are asked not to use generative AI at any stage of your work in this course—not for brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, or editing. Everything you submit, and everything done to prepare what you submit, should be produced by you.

The reason is not suspicion. The assignments here are built so that the work of producing them is the learning: attempting something, finding that the first attempt doesn’t hold up, and revising it is how the underlying skill gets built. Work that arrives without that process may look finished, but it leaves the skill unbuilt.

By “generative AI” I mean tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and also AI features built into other software—Grammarly, for example—that generate, rewrite, summarize, or translate text. If you aren’t sure whether something counts, ask before you use it.

If you use assistive technology as part of an approved accommodation, this policy is not aimed at you. Come talk to me and we’ll make the expectations clear.

Student support and resources

Disability accommodations (DRES)

If you have a disability and need accommodations, please register with Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) or the National Center on Deafness (NCOD). DRES is in Bayramian Hall, room 110, and can be reached at (818) 677-2684 or dres@csun.edu. NCOD is on Bertrand Street in Jeanne Chisholm Hall and can be reached at (818) 677-2054, videophone (818) 435-3887, or ncod@csun.edu. If you would like to discuss your need for accommodations with me, please contact me to set up an appointment.

Basic needs (CSUN with A HEART)

If you are facing challenges related to food insecurity, housing precarity/homelessness, mental health, access to technology, eldercare/childcare, or healthcare, you can find guidance, help, and resources from CSUN with A HEART.

Mental health resources

University Counseling Services (UCS) is a mental health center for students enrolled at CSUN. UCS provides a range of high-quality mental health services including initial evaluations, short-term counseling and psychotherapy, Wellness Workshops, group treatment, psychiatric services, crisis/urgent care services, and case management. UCS is located in Bayramian Hall 520 and can be reached at (818) 677-2366, Option 1 (Option 3 after hours), or coun@csun.edu.

Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24 hours a day. The older number, (800) 273-8255, still routes to the same service.

Reach the Crisis Text Line by texting START to 741741 (free, 24/7, confidential).

Learning Resource Center

Free tutoring is available on campus through the Learning Resource Center (LRC): tutoring in multiple subjects, one-on-one help with writing and grammar, and reading and writing workshops. Hours and appointments are on the Learning Resource Center site.

Disclosures under the CSU Nondiscrimination Policy (Title IX)

All faculty and staff (with few exceptions) are classified as a “responsible employee.” In the event that you choose to write, speak, or otherwise disclose about having experienced discrimination or harassment based on a protected status (including Title IX violations such as dating/domestic violence, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, or stalking), and/or retaliation, and specify that this violence occurred while you or the perpetrator were a CSUN student, federal and state laws, and CSU policy, require that I notify our campus Title IX Coordinator/DHR Administrator within the Office of Equity and Compliance (equityandcompliance@csun.edu).

Someone from the Office of Equity and Compliance will contact you to inform you of your rights and options and connect you with support resources, including possibilities for holding accountable the person who harmed you. Know that you will not be forced to share information and your level of involvement will be your choice.

If you do not want the Office of Equity and Compliance notified, instead of disclosing the experience to me, you can speak confidentially* with:

• Campus Care Advocate:
  • Klotz Student Health Center, Room 210
  • Phone: (818) 677-7492
  • Email: careadvocates@csun.edu
• University Counseling Services
  • Bayramian Hall, 520 Phone:
  • Phone: (818) 677-2366, Option 1
  • Email: coun@csun.edu

*Note: If it is determined that an alleged perpetrator poses an imminent threat to the broader campus community or if person(s) under 18 years of age are involved, our Campus Care Advocate is required to notify our Department of Police Services.

For more information regarding your university rights and options, see the Office of Equity and Compliance or read the CSU Nondiscrimination Policy in full.

Pregnancy-related modifications

As a part of your rights under the CSU Nondiscrimination Policy and as CSUN’s commitment to compliance with Title IX and supporting the academic success of pregnant students and students with pregnancy related conditions (pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, and all related medical conditions or recovery), you can request reasonable, related modifications from the University. Please email CSUN’s Title IX Coordinator/DHR Administrator, La Shonda Coleman, in the Office of Equity and Compliance at equityandcompliance@csun.edu. The Office of Equity and Compliance will work with your professors and academic unit to provide reasonable modifications needed to be supportive of your education while pregnant or due to related medical conditions or recovery under Title IX. The CSU Nondiscrimination Policy has more information.

Contacting me

You have a variety of ways of reaching me and getting your questions or concerns resolved. These are also all ways of staying engaged in the course.

1. Ask your question in class. Other students might have the same question; other students might have answers. In addition to improving class morale, you’re helping each other out when you get a question answered in class.
2. Join the course Discord.
   • Find regular updates in #announcements
   • Find discussion of the material and the course in #general
   • Pose a question in #questions
   • Discuss off-topic issues in #chat
   • Send me a direct message. I’m going to try to be pretty attentive to DMs and activity on Discord throughout the work week, so should be fairly reachable:
     • M/W/F 9–5, and especially 10–12 and 1–3
     • T/Th 9–5 sporadically (I’m teaching) Come to my office hours. I hold them Tuesdays, 2:30–3:30, in Sierra Tower 506; Thursdays, 2:30–3:30, in Sierra Tower 530; and at other times, on Zoom, by appointment.
   • To make an appointment outside of my fixed hours, go to my booking page.
   • If you have something sensitive you need to discuss with me personally, this is the way to do it.
   • Write me an email me or send me a DM on Discord if you need to schedule a different time; I’ll see if it’s possible.
3. Shoot me an email for any more official business. I’m at erick dot jimenez at csun dot edu.
4. Visit a tutor. For more information, go to the tutoring web site.
5. Poke around this course site.
   • For questions about assignments, grading, and other policy matters, see the page on policies.
   • For questions about readings, see the course outline.
   • For questions about what’s going on, see the calendar.

Version

Version 0.9 · Pre-semester