Admission requirements
Admission to this course is restricted to:
BA students in Philosophy: Global and Comparative Perspectives, who have successfully completed at least 70 ECTS credits of the mandatory components of the first and second year of their bachelor’s programme, including Philosophical Skills and one of the following courses: Ethics OR Continental Philosophy from a Global perspective OR World Philsophies: Greek and Roman Antiquity.
BA students in Filosofie, who have successfully completed at least 70 ECTS credits of the mandatory components of the first and second year of their bachelor’s programme, including Filosofische vaardigheden and one of the following courses: Continentale filosofie: de vraag naar het heden OR Ethiek OR Griekse en Romeinse filosofie.
Description
From its inception, philosophy has been intimately connected to the notion of critique. To philosophize means not to take the values, ideas and institutions of your society for granted, but to inquire into their origin and justification, with the aim of transforming yourself or even the world. But critical philosophy also implies philosophical self-criticism: what should the aim of philosophy really be? Truth? Reason? Freedom? And is the way we are doing philosophy really suited to achieving this aim? Marx famously wrote that ‘philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.’ But is it really possible to use critical thought to change the world? What is the relation between philosophy, politics and society? How can we reflect critically on our society when our minds and the very concepts we use are shaped by that same society?
In this course we will engage with these questions in light of four broad themes: the critique of political economy (Marx and Marxism); philosophical critique and the critique of philosophy (as itself reflecting historical or current forms of domination); the critique of culture (the ‘culture industry’, the role of cultural production in successive phases of (‘postmodern’, ‘late’) capitalism; and language and the self (the ‘critique of the subject’, e.g. Foucault, Butler).
Course objectives
Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:
the role philosophy can play in criticizing culture, institutions, power structures, and philosophy itself;
the claims and positions of central thinkers in critical philosophy, broadly construed (Marxism, the Frankfurt School, poststructuralism, contemporary theory);
the relations between these authors and their position in a broader philosophical and social context.
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:
take a critically argued position regarding the ideas and arguments of thinkers in critical philosophy, both orally and in writing;
develop a clear, relevant and original research question in relation to the topic and write a well researched essay answering this question;
develop their own position and question their own assumptions in dialogue with others, and help others do the same through asking questions.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Weekly discussion questions on the readings: 10%
Written assignments preparing for the final paper: 20%
Final research paper: 70%
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
The resit consists of a paper and counts as 90% of the grade. The weekly written questions are not replaced by the resit. Students who have obtained a satisfactory grade for the first examination cannot take the resit.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Literature to be announced; literature will be made available through Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga
Remarks
Not applicable.