Philosophy 188

This course will give an overview of major works and developments in phenomenology. To this end, we will analyze key concepts such as ‘experience,’ ‘horizon,’ or ‘lifeworld’ and trace controversies within the phenomenological tradition — for instance, controversies over the methodology that is best suited to allow phenomenological inquiry to come ‘back to the things themselves’ as they show up when we encounter them. Based on readings of seminal texts by Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Arendt, and Levinas, we will address central themes of phenomenology such as intentionality and perception, subjectivity and intersubjectivity, embodiment and intercorporeality, affect and emotion, spatiality and temporality. Against this background we will examine how phenomenological insights have been brought to bear in contemporary debates in aesthetics, in ethics, and in social and political philosophy — particularly in anti-racist and feminist thought. Finally, we will look into ways in which phenomenology has been applied outside of philosophy and influenced fields such as cognitive science, psychology, or literary studies.