CTPE 701a: Introduction to Critical Theory: Pre-History

Spring 2014 (Jan. 18/19 & 25/26) Dr. Creston Davis and Dr. Jason Adams

Global Center for Advanced Studies [email protected]

Sat/Sun 12-2:30 PM EST 616-439-1338

Course Description:

For the world to change, we must first theorize a different world. To do this, we must understand how the seed of critical theory was planted by the radical Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th through early 20th centuries. In this seminar we will learn and evaluate the merits and demerits of early critical theory that sought to free us from enslavement to theological & economic modes of perception and production.

Students will engage the primary texts (provided digitally by the instructors) as well as well-known secondary readers of Kant, Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche. The course will be appended by guest speakers, including Alain Badiou, Azfar Hussain, Dorothea Olkowski, and possibly Antonio Negri, Marcus Pound, & Kenneth Surin, while instructors will facilitate student-generated discussions to evaluate the radical turn that early critical theory provides in philosophy & social theory, in addition to its limitations.

Students seeking to transfer for regular course credit must take the entire three-part course, rather than just one module, unless alternate arrangements have been negotiated.

Requirements:

 

Students will read and discuss central works that influenced the rise of critical theory, including excerpts from Kant's Critique of Judgment, Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirt, Marx's Capital and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, as well as several secondary and supplementary texts on these works. Credit-seeking students will also write a brief blog essay and engage guest lectures. Non-credit seeking students may simply audit the lectures and participate in the course chats at their own pace.

 

* Students must respect one another and the instructor. It is okay of course, to be “agonistic”, to dissent on various points that arise in other's arguments, but there is also a need for everyone to feel respected enough to get a chance to speak and to introduce their own readings and perspectives. So, to make sure that the discussion is not dominated by one or two people, I ask that you keep in mind that our task will be to combine these two needs into an ethos of what political philosopher William Connolly calls “agonistic respect”.

* This mini-course can be taken in parts a, b and c to form the three-credit CTPE 701 Introduction to Critical Theory course that is a required prerequisite for all diploma-seeking GCAS students, who will then attend in-residence Summer Institutes in their field of interest (CTPE 601abc and CTPE 701abc are both required). It is also available as a standalone course for junior faculty members seeking professional development opportunities, as well as the general public or non-credit seeking students, without any additional requirements.

 

Grading:

 

Our grading policy is Pass/Fail. If you take all three parts of the full 3-credit course (a), (b) & (c) you will receive a 1-3 page written evaluation from the instructors.

 

 

Part I

Pre-History

1. Jan. 8:

 

Course Preview, via Google Hangouts on Air

 

Guests:

 

Prof. Alain Badiou and Prof. Tzuchien Tho: “The Concept of Critique” (Lecture)

1. Jan. 18:

I. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason; Critique of Judgment (excerpts)

 

Guests:

 

Prof. Dorothea Olkowski: “The Structure of Kant's Critical Philosophy” (Lecture)

 

2. Jan. 19

G. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit; Science of Logic (excerpts)

Guests:

 

Prof. Azfar Hussain: “Afterword to Hegel: Caliban's Insurrectionary Interdisciplinarity” (Lecture)

3. Jan. 25

K. Marx Capital (Ch. 1) and The Communist Manifesto

 

Guests:

 

Prof. Antonio Negri or Prof. Kenneth Surin (tentative)

4. Jan. 26

F. Nietzsche, “On the Natural History of Morals” and Genealogy of Morals (excerpts)

 

Guests:

Prof. Michael J. Shapiro or Prof. Carl Raschke (tentative)