Fall 1996
Office: JUB 303
Office Hours: MW 11:00 - 12:00, TTH 12:30 - 1:30, and by appointment
Phone: 898-5774
E-mail: jpurcell@frank.mtsu.edu
My Homepage: The Eclectic Diner
How to Create a Simple Web Page: HTML
If you have questions or just want to express an idea and get feedback from others in the class, please use the Recent Continental On-Line Discussion Page.
You can add relevant links you've found to the Recent Continental Add A Link Page Please add to this list freely and read the guidelines on the page. Thanks!
Philosophy in the twentieth century, especially in Europe, could be characterized as self-reflective, i.e. as a concern with the question "What is philosophy?" This is not, however, simply a quest for a definition of philosophy, nor a concern with etymology. Instead, philosophy, at least since Nietzsche, has attempted to rethink the nature of philosophy, to understand how its history has affected what has come to be known as philosophy.
As a result, a number of thinkers in the twentieth century have raised questions concerning the effect(s) of philosophy's history on how and what we think of as philosophy. Heidegger, for example, argued that one inherits a culture, a language, a history, and a philosophical perspective to such an extent that we are fated by that history. One's philosophical history, on Heidegger's account, determines the very limits of what it is possible to think. This effect has of course led some philosophers to question these limits, to ask whether such limits can be superceded, whether these limits can even be known, and whether there is anything "beyond" these limits that can be articulated.
In this course we will examine a number of thinkers who are commonly associated with what is called "postmodernism". The term "postmodern" has been associated with various "philosophical positions", from absolute relativism, to nonsense. During the course of the semester we will examine several of these thinkers with a view toward attempting to get behind the hype that so often is associated with them, so as to evaluate critically their perspectives.
It is expected that students in this class will take advantage of the World Wide Web as a resource for finding "sites" that relate to the material utilized in the class.
Each student will be required to write two papers of 8 - 10 pages each, and participate in class discussions. The first paper will be due Friday, October 11, 1996. The final paper will be due on or before noon, Friday, December 13, 1996. You should discuss your topic with the instructor one to two weeks before each paper is due.
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Volume I
Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Explained
Slavoj Zizek, Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture
We will also read three to five articles, depending on time restrictions.
Following the links below, and the links contained within them, should get you just about anywhere on the Web you may want to go (you may of course need to invoke a search engine, available from the Eclectic Diner's "Lose and Find" page).
MTSU Philosophy Department Homepage
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