GLS
6122 LEVEL.
CRITICAL
THINKING AND DECONSTUCTION IN THE ARTS, HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL
SCIENCES.
Course
Description
The
Arts and Humanities attempt to understand and articulate the human condition,
our relations to others and the world, and the ways in which we try to give our
lives existential meaning.
Philosophy shares these interests, and reflects upon the promise and
limitations of the different methods, approaches and/or perspectives that may be
employed in such intellectual inquiry, and upon the ways of distinguishing true
from false claims and beliefs.
The
course begins by outlining and comparing Modern and Postmodern accounts of the
roles of Experience, Reason and Intuition in providing approaches to, and
justifications for, our claims to understanding and knowledge. From there it
proceeds to give a Structuralist or Holistic account of the origin or genesis of
meaning or significance. Noting that ambiguity is often characteristic of meaning, as well as of our perceptions
of the world, and of our understanding of human existence, behavior, social
interactions, cultural communications and artistic expressions, the course
introduces students to some of the basic insights of Phenomenology,
Hermeneutics, Structuralism and Poststructuralism regarding the role of
theoretical preconceptions, interpretations and contexts in influencing our
perception and understanding of the world of supposedly objective facts, social
behavior, literary texts and cultural artifacts etc. Exploring the implications
of thus subverting or Deconstructiong some of the traditional or absolutist
notions of objectivity, truth and reality,
the course nevertheless ends up distinguishing between the historical,
social and cultural relativism thus indicated, and the arbitrariness with which
such relativism is often mistakenly equated. And it does so by suggesting
non-absolutist criteria for adjudicating between the relative merits and
shortcomings of differing perspectives and interpretations etc.
Offering
as it does an account of the basic epistemology and methodology of the liberal
arts, this course is of enduring utility to anyone working in the arts and
humanities, while in view of the Postmodern critique of traditional notions of
objectivity, it should also be of interest to those working in the human, social
and natural sciences.
Objectives
1)Teach
students to understand the nature of Experience, Reason and Intuition, and
competing views on their role in promoting our
understanding.
2)Teach
students to employ Experience, Reason and Intuition in promoting
understanding.
3)Teach
students to understand competing views on the roles of Experience, Reason and
Intuition in deriving and justifying knowledge claims.
4)Teach
students to employ Experience, Reason and intuition in deriving and justifying
knowledge claims.
5)Acquaint
students with the Structuralist account of the genesis and determination of
meaning and/or significance.
6)
Acquaint students with the influence of the intelligible upon the sensible,
interpretations upon descriptions, conceptions upon perceptions, theories upon
facts, contexts upon texts, and the resultant ambiguities in our experiences and
understanding of objective facts, human behavior, literary texts and social and
cultural situations and artifacts etc.
7)Provide
students with the capacity to critique the traditional or absolutist notions of
objectivity, truth and reality, while nevertheless enabling them to
distinguishing between the historical, social and cultural relativism thus
indicated, and the arbitrariness with which such relativism is often mistakenly
equated, by providing and justifying non-absolutist criteria for adjudicating
between the relative merits and shortcomings of differing perspectives and
interpretations etc.
COURSE
OUTLINE
Philosophical
Methods
1.
Experience I (Perception and Description of the Facts; Inductive
Generalization)
Richard
Popkin & Avrum Stroll, Philosophy Made Simple, 2nd Revised Edition,
Doubleday, NY, 1993, p.205-236.
J.
Perry & M. Bratman, Introduction to Philosophy, Third Edition, Oxford
University Press, 1999, 139-44, 176-217.
2.
Experience II (Preconceptions
and Interpretations; The Theoretical Mediation of AFacts@)
Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Colin Smith,
Routledge and Kegan, London, 1962, pp. 3-50.
Thoman
Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd Edition, Chicago
University Press, Chicago, 1970.
3.
Reason I
(Deduction and Transcendental Reason)
Popkin
& Stroll, Philosophy Made
Simple, 203-5; 237-42.
4.
Reason II (The
Structure of the Relation Between Concepts)
Simon
Glynn, AThe
De-con-struction of Reason@
in Man and World: An International Philosophical Review, Vol.24, no.3,
July 1991.
5.
Intuition I (Universal Forms & General Terms;
Self Evidence)
Popkin & Stroll, Philosophy Made
Simple 121-3; 189-96.
Forrest
Baird & Walter Kauffman, From Plato to Nietzsche, (New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 1997) Section on Plato
6.
Intuition II (Inductive
Generation of Essences Versus Structuralist Critique)
Simon
Glynn, "From Transcendental Logic to a Phenomenology of the Life-World" in
Analecta Husserliana, The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, (XLVIII)
(1996), pp. 145-166.
Meaning
and Interpretation
7.
Meaning
(A Structuralist and Holist Account of Significance and Identity)
Saussure,
Ferdinand de, Course in General Linguistics,(1916) (London: Fontana,
1974)
Glen
Ward, Postmodernism, (Lincolnwood Chicago: NTC\Contemporary Publishing,
1997) pp.
80-86
John
Sturrock, Structralism, 2nd ed.,(London: Fontana, 1993) Ch.1, pp. 1-32.,
Ch. 3. pp.70-102.
Todd
May, Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy, (New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1997) Ch.3.
pp.80-100.
8.The
Conflict of Interpretations.
John
Sturrock, Structuralism and Since, (London: Oxford University Press,
1979) Ch.5., pp.154-180.
John
Sturrock, Structuralism, Ch.5 & Conclusion.
pp.136-176
Glen
Ward, op. cit., pp.94-104
Robert
Solomon, Continental Philosophy
Since 1750, Supplement, 194-202.
Madan
Sarup, An Introductory Guide to Poststructuralism and Postmodernism 2nd
ed. (Athens GA: University of Georgia Press, 1993) Chs.2-3. pp.
32-89
David
West, An Introduction to Continental Philosophy, (Cambridge: Polity
Press, 1996) Ch.6. pp.154-188.
Crews,
Fredrick, The Pooh Perplex, (Milton Keynes: Robin Clark, 1979)
9.
Truth (From
Correspondence to Coherence)
Walter
Truitt Anderson, The Truth About Truth, (NY: Putnam,
1995)
Simon
Glynn"The Dynamics of Alternative Realities" in Reconsidering Psychology:
Perspectives from Continental Philosophy, eds. James E. Faulconer &
Richard N. Williams, (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1990), pp.
175-197.
10.
Reality
(The Social Construction of Reality)
Benjamin
L. Whorf, Language, Thought and Reality
Thomas Luckman and Peter Berger,The Social
Construction of Reality,
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967)
Walter
Truitt Anderson Reality Isn't What it
Used to Be, (NY & San
Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990).
Schutz,
Alfred, "Don Quixote and the Problem of Reality" in A.Schutz Collected Papers, Vol.2, (The Hague,
Nijhoff)
Simon
Glynn"The Deconstruction of Some Paradoxes in Relativity, Quantum Theory and
Particle Physics" in Continental and Postmodern Perspectives in the
Philosophy of Science, eds. Babette Babich, Debra Bergoffen and Simon Glynn,
(Vermont: Avebury, 1995), pp. 89-109.
11.
Hyperreality.
Jean
Baudrillard, Simulacrum and Simulation, trans. S. Glaser, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor,
1994.
Umberto
Eco, Travels in Hyperreality, trans .W. Weaver, Harcourt, NY,
1986.
Debord,
Guy, The Society of the Spectacle, trans. D. Nicholson Smith, (NY: Zone,
1995)
Glen
Ward, op. cit. Chs.3-7, pp.32-184 (excluding what you have already read
above)
Madan
Sarup, op. cit. Chs. 4-7, pp. 90-187.
David
West, op. cit. Ch. 7, pp. 189-220.
Course
Requirements
Each
student will be required to write 2 paper on topics related to the first half
(Philosophical Methods) and 2 papers on topics related to the second half
(Meaning and Interpretation) of the course. These will be worth a maximum of 20%
each. Also each student will be expected to contribute to seminar discussion,
which may include introducing and commenting on one of the topics mentioned in
te course outline, for which they will receive a maximum of
20%.
Grading
Scale
A...
93.33
A-...90
- 93.32
B+...86.66
- 89.99
B... 83.33 - 86.65
B-
...80 - 83.32
C+...76.66
- 79.99
C... 73.33-76.65
C-...
70 - 73.32
Bibliography
Anderson,
Walter Truitt Reality Isn't What it Used to Be, NY & San Francisco:Harper &
Row,1990.
The Truth About Truth, NY: Putnam, 1995.
Babich,
Babette Bergoffen, Debra and Glynn, Simon eds. Continental and
Postmodern
Perspectives in the Philosophy of Science, eds.Vermont: Avebury,
1995
Baird,
Forrest & Kauffman, Walter, From Plato to Nietzsche, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall,
1997
Baudrillard,
Jean Simulacra &
Simulation, trans. S.F. Glaser,
Ann Arbor: Michigan UP,
1994.
Crews Freedrick, The Pooh
Perplex, Milton Keynes: Robin
Clark, 1979.
Eco,
Umberto, Travels in Hyperreality, trans .W. Weaver, Harcourt, NY,
1986.
Debord,
Guy, The Society of the Spectacle, trans. D. Nicholson Smith, NY: Zone,
1995.
Glynn,
Simon, “The
Dynamics of Alternative Realities”
in Faulconer James & Williams, Richard, eds. Reconsidering Psychology:
Perspectives from Continental
Philosophy Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1990.
Glynn,
Simon ed., Sartre: An
Investigation of Some Major Themes,
London &
Vermont: Gower, 1987.
Glynn,
Simon,AThe
De-con-struction of Reason@
in Man and World: An International
Philosophical
Review, Vol.24, no.3, July 1991.
Glynn,
Simon, "From Transcendental Logic to a Phenomenology of the Life-World" in
Analecta Husserliana, The
Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, (XLVIII) (1996)
David
Hume, Enquires Concerning Human Understanding, London :Clarendon
Press,
1975.
A Treatise on Human Nature, Oxford: OUP, 1967.
Kuhn,
Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press,
1962
Luckman,
Thomas and Berger, Peter, The Social Construction of Reality,
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.
May,
Todd, Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy, New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1997
Merleau-Ponty,
Maurice, The Phenomenology of Perception, trans. C. Smith,
London:
Routledge Kegan Paul, 1962.
Perry, J & Bratman, M, Introduction to
Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1986.
Pettit,
Philip, The Concept of Structuralism, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1975.
Plato,
The Republic
Popkin,
Richard & Stroll, Avrum Philosophy Made Simple, Second Edition, Heinemann
London, 1986.
Madan
Sarup, An Introductory Guide to Poststructuralism and Postmodernism 2nd
ed..
Athens
GA: University of Georgia Press, 1993
Sassure,
Ferdinand de, Course in General Linguistics,(1916) London: Fontana,
1974.
Schutz,
Alfred, "Don Quixote and the Problem of Reality" in Schutz, Collected
Papers, Vol.2,
The Hague, Nijhoff.
Solomon,
Robert, Continental Philosophy
Since 1750, Supplement, 194-202.
Sturrock,
John Structralism, 2nd ed., London: Fontana, 1993
Sturrock,
John, Structuralism and Since: From Levi-Struass to Derrida, London:
Oxford
University Press, 1979.
On Deconstruction,
London:
Routledge & Kegan
Ward,
Glenn Teach Yourself Postmodernism, Chicago: NTC Publishing,
1997.
West,
David, An Introduction to
Continental Philosophy, Cambridge: Polity Press,
1996.
Whorf,
Benjamin L. Language, Thought and Reality