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Merleau-Ponty´s Political Thought

Vak
2018-2019

Admission requirements

Admission to this course is restricted to:

  • BA students in Philosophy, who have successfully completed their first year, and who have also completed at least 10 EC’s of the mandatory components of their second year, including: Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Mind.

  • Pre-master’s students in Philosophy for whom this course has been specified on their admission statement.

Description

The course will follow the evolution of Merleau-Ponty’s political thinking from his early work of the late forties to 1959’s Signs. It will pay particular attention to the systematic unity between his theoretical thought and his political thought, Merleau-Ponty’s relations to Marxism, and his efforts to create a positive notion of political moderation.

Course objectives

This course aim to provide the students with a clear view of:

  • the trajectory of Merleau-Ponty’s political thought;

  • the context within which Merleau-Ponty’s political views arose;

  • the relations between Merleau-ponty’s theoretical philosophy and his political philosophy;

  • the relevance of Merleau-Ponty’s political thought for current debates.

Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:

  • the legacy of post-Marxism for current political thinking;

  • the relations between phenomenology and political philosophy;

  • some important aspects of the relations between ethcis and philosophy.

Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:

  • critically understand and interconnect Merleau-Ponty’s major political texts with each other and with those of Marx, Lukacs, Koestler, Lefort, Foucault and others;

  • present a consistent view of the problems that motivated Merleau-Ponty’s political thinking.

Timetable

See: BA Filosofie

  • Filosofie, BA3 – BA Plus-traject or Standaardtraject

Mode of instruction

  • Seminars

Class attendance is required.

Course Load

Total course load 10 EC x 28 hours = 280 hours

  • Attending lectures and seminars (13 weeks x 3 hrs): 39 hours

  • Preparation for seminars: 40 hours

  • Study of literature: 80 hours

  • Assignment: 38 hours

  • Preparation of presentation: 20 hours

  • Preparation final paper: 63 hours

Assessment method

  • Oral reading report on a primary text and abstract (30%)

  • Abstract for final paper (5%)

  • Final paper on a question agreed in advance based on abstract submitted (65%)

Weighing

The final mark for the course is established by determination of the weighted average of several subtests. A subtest can be graded as unsatisfactory.

Resit

The resit consists of one examination for all parts at once. No separate resits will be offered for mid-term tests. The resit will be a thoroughly demanding survey take-home exam covering the entirety of the course materials, and including a text commentary, a series of short questions and an argumentative essay. The mark will replace all previously earned marks for subtests.

Satisfactory completion of practical assignments (presentation,abstract) is a prerequisite for taking the resit.
Students who have obtained a satisfactory grade for the first examination cannot take the resit.

Exam review

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.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used for:

  • posting texts, general information documents (syllabus etc), assignments and updates.

Reading list

We will conduct the course in English, using Engish translations of Merleau-Ponty’s texts. The students are invited to acquaint themselves with the French whenever possible.

Merleau-Ponty’s texts:

  • Sense and Nonsense

  • Humanism and Terror

  • Adventures of the Dialectic

  • Signs

Secondary texts:

  • Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon

  • Gyorgy Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website

Students are strongly advised to register in uSis through the activity number which can be found in the timetables for courses and exams.

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

Dr. F. Chouraqui

Remarks

Not applicable.