Philosophy 290-6

This seminar will examine a variety of approaches to history as an object of knowledge, focusing on philosophers and theorists in the history of European thought. We will discuss selected writings from figures such as Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger, Adorno, Benjamin, Arendt, Koselleck, Ricoeur, Buck-Morss and Heller. Here is a sample of questions we will consider: how can the past become an object not just of empirical study, but of philosophy and theory? How do historical events or radical ruptures emerge, unfold and dissipitate? Are there underlying principles or purposes to be found across historical changes, and if so, are these necessary or contingent? What does it mean to attain historical knowledge, or to ‘learn from history’? And what are the conditions of possible histories after cataclysmic catastrophes? Co-taught by faculty in philosophy and history, this introductory seminar is open to students without extensive pre-knowledge of these texts and their backgrounds.