This fall's Contemporary Philosophy graduate seminar is a survey of current continental people. It examines influential European philosophic movements in the second half of the 20th Century, including critical theory, philosophical hermeneutics, structuralism, psychoanalytic feminism, deconstruction, poststructuralism, and postmodernism.

Reading assignments are based on a book currently being prepared for publication by the instructor. The book, an overview of current continental philosophy, includes thirty readings from nineteen key thinkers.

Topics and persons to be studied:

• Introduction
• Current Continental Philosophy: The Modern, The Postmodern
• Thematic Background Figures: Marx, Freud, Nietzsche
• Critical Theory
• Marxism and the Frankfurt School
• Georg Lukács
• Max Horkheimer
• Walter Benjamin
• Theodor Adorno
• Hans-Georg Gadamer
• Jürgen Habermas
• Louis Althusser
• Psychoanalytic Structuralism, Feminism, Deconstruction
• Structuralism
• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Jacques Lacan
• Feminism and Psychoanalysis
• Luce Irigaray
• Julia Kristeva
• Deconstruction
• Emmanuel Levinas
• Jacques Derrida
• Hélène Cixous
• Poststructuralism, Postmodernism
• Poststructuralism
• Gilles Deleuze
• Michel Foucault
• Postmodernism
• Jean-François Lyotard
• Richard Rorty
• Jean Baudrillard

Presentations/Papers/Grades

There are 26 classes devoted to readings from the text. At most class meetings one of the members of the seminar will prepare a brief outline of the reading (one sheet, back and front) and direct the class discussion of the assigned material. Depending on the size of the seminar group, this should mean that each student will prepare an outline twice during the semester. Together, these presentations count for 25% of the semester grade.

By mid-semester each student will also be responsible for completing a 10-page paper on a topic addressed by one of the philosophers studied (another 35% of the final grade). The final term paper will be a more in-depth (20-page) paper on another topic as discussed by a different philosopher. For this paper, most students end up writing on a figure for whom they have prepared a presentation. The final paper is worth 40% of the final grade.

Office: Bolton 302 B
Office hours: Monday & Wednesday 1:00-4:00
Phone: 845-5619 (office), 846-4649 (home)
Email:   sdaniel@unix.tamu.edu
Website: http://people.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/620sy00.html