Admission requirements
Admission to this course is restricted to:
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 History of Modern Philosophy, Griekse en Romeinse filosofie or History of Political Philosophy, Ethiek, Politieke filosofie / Political Philosophy, OR including History of Modern Philosophy, Cultuurfilosofie, Continentale filosofie, Philosophy of Mind.
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 World Philosophies: Greek and Roman Antiquity, World Philosophies: Modern Europe, Ethics, Political Philosophy, OR including World Philosophies: Modern Europe, Philosophy of Culture, Concepts of Selfhood, and at least one of the courses World Philosophies: China, World Philosophies: India, World Philosophies: Africa, World Philosophies: Middle East.
Pre-master’s students in Philosophy who are in possession of an admission statement and who have to complete an advanced seminar, to be selected from package A or B.
Description
‘Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.’ (Karl Marx, 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte)
Politics is about collective self-determination; that is to say, about people working together to realize collective aims and shape their common life. However, as Marx suggests, political action takes place against the backdrop of historically developed institutions, social relations and ideologies, which sometimes seem to constrain our actions to such an extent that freedom seems an illusion: ‘The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.’
What is the relation between freedom and necessity in the development of history and in political agency? How should we conceptualize social change? Does it still make sense to think of political change in terms of the notion of revolution? Is ‘class’ still a useful concept to understand politics? What is the relation between philosophy and politics, theory and praxis? This course will examine these questions through engagement with the tradition of dialectical materialism, from Hegel and Marx to key thinkers in the Western Marxist tradition (Lukács, Gramsci, Althusser, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty) as well as contemporary authors (Mouffe, Laclau, Žižek, Táíwò).
Course objectives
Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:
the claims and positions of central thinkers in the tradition of (Western) Marxism, dialectical materialism, and phenomenological political philosophy;
the relations between these authors and their position in a broader philosophical and social context;
thinking regarding the relation between politics, philosophy and history in continental philosophy.
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:
take a critically argued position regarding the ideas and arguments of thinkers in this tradition, 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.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar.
Class attendance is required. The sessions will take the form of lectures by the instructor, student presentations, and seminar discussions of key texts.
Assessment method
Assessment
Weekly discussion questions on the reading (10%); assignments preparing for the final paper (20%); final paper (70%)
Attendance and participation during the seminars and completing the assignments preparing for the final paper are required to pass the course.
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determination of the weighted average of several subtests (see above).
Resit
The resit consists of a paper. The mark for the resit will replace the grades for the final paper and written assignments (90%), the mark for the weekly questions is not replaced. Attendance and active participation in class is required for admission to 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
To be announced.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudymap is not possible for this course. Students are requested to submit their preferences for the third-year electives by means of an online registration form. They will receive the instruction and online registration form by email (uMail account); in June for courses scheduled in semester 1, and in December for courses scheduled in semester 2. Registration in uSis will be taken care of by the Education Administration Office.
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.