With so much to choose from, a course such as this will inevitably leave a lot out. Don't forget to read the course narrative to get a sense of the "story" of contemporary philosophy to which this outline corresponds.
Specific Course Units
Berman, Marshall. "Introduction: Modernity -- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and Chapter 1: Goethe's Faust: The Tragedy of Development." All That is Solid Melts in the Air. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. 15-50. 1-19)
The introduction and first part of the first chapter of this book define modernism and develop the author's thesis about the tragic dimension of modern experience.
W. T. Jones, "Chapter 1: The World We Live In," The Twentieth Century To Wittgenstein And Sartre, 2 ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1980) 432, vol. 5 of A History Of Western Philosophy, 5 vols.
Allen Wheelis, The End Of The Modern Age (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1971) 129.
Recommeded for Majors and Grads
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History Of Time (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1988) 1-51.
Anders Wedberg, A History Of Philosophy, vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984) 1-20.
Jurgen Habermas, "Modernity Versus Postmodernity," A Postmodern Reader, ed. Joseph Natoli, and Linda Hutcheon (Albany, New York: State U of New York, 1993) 91-105.
Reading Tips: Some of this reading (e.g. Berman and Wheelis)
engages in sweeping generalizations about culture and history. Don't expect
a lot of precision out of such reading; just make sure you get the picture.
With the Jones reading, some of you will feel a little lost since references
are made to 19th century philosophy which even the majors may not have
read. Just come to class with questions about the more puzzling ideas.
2. Realism, Analytic Philosophy, Positivism
W. T. Jones, "Chapter 3: Moore and the Revival of Realism," The Twentieth Century To Wittgenstein And Sartre, 2 ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1980) 88-127, vol. 5 of A History Of Western Philosophy, 5 vols.
W. T. Jones, "Chapter 6: The Tractatus," 200-17.
W. T. Jones., "Chapter 7: Logical Positivism," 218-49.
Recommended for Majors and Grads
Michael Polanyi, "Objectivity," (1958): 3-17.
See me for secondary reading on Wittgenstein. You may wish to look at the Tractatus (any edition) or some of the secondary literature about it.
Participation Opportunity: It would be helpful for one or more students to read the Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on "Realism" and try to present a digest of their reading to the class. This could either be done in a live classroom presentation or through a conference posting.
3. Phenomenology & Existentialism
W. T. Jones, "Chapter 9: Heidegger," The Twentieth Century To Wittgenstein And Sartre, 2 ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1980) 285-331, vol. 5 of A History Of Western Philosophy, 5 vols.
Herbert Spiegelberg, "Essentials of the [Phenomenological] Method," The Phenomenological Movement (The Hague: Martinu Nijhoff Publishers, 1982) 677-719.
Walter Kaufman, "Existentialism From Dostoevsky To Sartre," Existentialism From Dostoevsky To Sartre, ed. Walter Kaufman (New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc, 1975) 11-52.
W. T. Jones, "Chapter 10: Sartre," 332-63.
Jean- Paul Sartre, No Exit (Random House, 1989)
Recommended for Majors and Grads:
Jean- Paul Sartre, Being And Nothingness (In Part), trans. Hazel Barnes, Contemporary Philosophy, ed. Walter Kaufmann, and Forrest Baird (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994) 236-254.
4. Later Analytic Philosophy
Ludwig. Wittgenstein, and Denis; Anscombe, G. Paul, trans., On Certainty (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1972) 1-34.
W. T. Jones, "Chapter 11: The Later Wittgenstein," The Twentieth Century To Wittgenstein And Sartre, 2 ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1980) 364-386, vol. 5 of A History Of Western Philosophy, 5 vols.
Recommended for Majors and Grads:
Hilary Putnam. "Meaning and Reference." Contemporary Analytic Philosophy. editor James Baillie. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1997. 423-36.
W. V. O. Quine. "Ontological Relativity." Contemporary Analytic Philosophy.
editor James Baillie. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1997.
334-55.
5. Postmodernity
James Powell, Derrida for Beginners, Writers and Readers Press, 1997.
Stanley Trachtenberg, "Introduction," The Postmodern Moment, Stanley Trachtenberg (Westport, Conn.) 1985.
Jonathan Culler, On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism After Structuralism, ( Ithaca, New York: Cornell UP, 1982) 255-279.
Jean- Francois Lyotard, Excerpts From The Postmodern Condition: A Report On Knowledge, trans. Geoff Bennington, and Brian Massumi, A Postmodern Reader, ed. Joseph Natoli, and Linda Hutcheon (Albany, New York: State U of New York, 1993) 71-91.
Richard Rorty, "The Contingency of Self," Contingency, Irony, And Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge UP) .
Barthelme, Donald. "At the End of the Mechanical Age." 280-283
Apple, Max. "Postmodernism." Free Agents. 284-286
Recommended for Majors and Grads: