Universität Wien
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180121 SE New realistic philosophy of the present (2018S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

ACHTUNG!! Die Lehrveranstaltung entfällt am 09.05.2018!!

  • Wednesday 07.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 14.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 21.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 11.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 18.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 25.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 02.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 16.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 23.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 30.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 06.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 13.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Wednesday 20.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 21.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 2i NIG 2.Stock C0228
  • Wednesday 27.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Course Description
The seminar will deal with key texts of the new and speculative realist thinking of recent years, ranging from speculative realism and materialism to Markus Gabriel's “Sinnfeldontologie.” Two aspects will be of importance:

First, new realist thinking is characterized by a fundamental critique of the development of modern philosophy since Kant, from Kant’s “Critical Turn” itself to phenomenology, poststructuralism, and analytical philosophy of language. It will be one major task of the seminar to elaborate the motives of this criticism: What is its main point? What are the reasons given for it? Are these reasons convincing?

Second, we will have to focus on the new realist approaches themselves: What is their methodological starting point? What is their line of argument? What new philosophical paradigms are they developing?

As has often been noted, leaving aside their shared critical concern, the new and speculative realist approaches are rather heterogeneous, both in terms of content and quality. Nevertheless, they obviously form their own discursive field. Therefore, it can also be observed that several approaches refer to each other, either critical or productive, or both. The seminar will examine these relationships and intersections. It will start with a complete reading of Quentin Meillassoux's seminal 2006 essay "After Finitude." This will be followed by a discussion of texts by Ray Brassier, Markus Gabriel, Karen Barad, Graham Harman and Jane Bennett.

Course Objectives
This course provides students with a fundamental understanding of new and speculative realist thinking. Students will have the opportunity of learning to explain and critique concepts, theories, issues and questions of this field of current philosophical research.

Successful students will have demonstrated the ability to do the following at the completion of the course:
• Understanding of theories, concepts, questions, and issues pertaining to new realist and speculative realist thinking
• Accurate use of philosophical terminology
• Construction of a clear, specific, philosophical thesis on an issue about new realist and speculative realist thinking
• Awareness of potential problems, critiques of, or objections against a thesis or theory
• Presentation of a relevant, content-bearing response to such objections

Method
Close reading of the relevant literature and guided discussion.

Assessment and permitted materials

• One Final Written Thesis (10-15 pages, about 4,000-6,000 words): consisting of the student’s own well-supported position on a question or issue related to the discussion and reading material of the seminar
• Regular Participation
• Careful Preparation of Each Session
• Participation in the Seminar Discussion

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Minimum requirements: concentrated participation in the seminar; concise and orthographically correct form of the written thesis.
Evaluation is based on the overall level of the group as well as on the individual performance level (number of semesters, learning progress in the seminar).

Examination topics

Reading list

All texts relevant for the seminar will be provided on Moodle.

Primary Literature
• Barad, Karen. 2003. Posthumanist Performativity. In: Signs. Journal of Women Culture and Society, 28(3), p. 801-831.
• Bennett, Jane. 2001. The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press.
• Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
• Bennett, Jane. 2012. „Systems and Things: A Response to Graham Harman and Timothy Morton“. In New Literary History, Volume 43, Number 2, Spring 2012, S. 225-233
• Brassier, Ray. 2007. Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Gabriel, Markus. 2014. „Existenz, realistisch gedacht.“ In Der neue Realismus, herausgegeben von Markus Gabriel, 171-199, Berlin: Suhrkamp.
• Gabriel, Markus. 2015. Fields of Sense. A New Realist Ontology. Edinburgh University Press.
• Harman, Graham. 2007. “On Vicarious Causation”. In Collapse II: Speculative Realism, S. 187-221.
• Harman, Graham. 2011. The Quadruple Object. Alresford: Zero Books.
• Meillassoux, Quentin. 2008. After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency. Trans. Ray Brassier. London: Continuum.

Secondary Literature
• Benoist, Jocelyn. 2011/2014. Éléments de philosophie réaliste. Paris: Vrin.
• Bryant, Levi, Srnicek, Nick, and Harman, Graham, Hrsg. 2011. The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism. Melbourne: re-press.
• Golumbia, David. 2016. „‘Correlationism’: The Dogma that Never Was.“ boundary 2 43 (2): 1-25.
• Dolphijn, Rick, van der Tuin, Iris. Hrsg. 2012. New Materialism: Interviews and Cartographies. Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press.
• Gaitsch, Peter, Lehmann, Sandra, und Schmidt, Philipp. Hrsg. 2017. Eine Diskussion mit Markus Gabriel: Phänomenologische Positionen zum Neuen Realismus. Wien: Turia + Kant.
• Gratton, Peter. 2014. Speculative Realism: Problems and Prospects. London: Continuum.
• Harman, Graham. 2008. „On the Horror of Phenomenology: Lovecraft and Husserl.“ Collapse IV: 333-364.
• Niemoczynski, Leon. „21st Century Speculative Philosophy: Reflections on the New Metaphysics and its Realism and Materialism.“ In Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 9, No. 2 (2013): 13-31.
• Sparrow, Tom. 2014. The End of Phenomenology. Metaphysics and New Realism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Zahavi, Dan. 2016. „The end of what? Phenomenology vs. speculative realism.“ International Journal of Philosophical Studies 24 (3): 289-309.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Sa 10.09.2022 00:19