Goucher College 2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalogue 
    
    Dec 12, 2024  
Goucher College 2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalogue PLEASE NOTE: This is an archived catalog. Programs are subject to change each academic year.

PHL 321 - Nineteenth Century Philosophy (4 Cr.)

(Formerly PHL 219) (GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
What is the relationship of one philosopher’s works to his predecessors? To philosophy itself? Are current philosophies responsible for explaining and correcting the philosophies of the past? Does the history of philosophy matter to philosophy now? Can philosophy define history? Can we discern patterns in that history? Does the human condition change in human history? This course will examine these questions through the lens of five nineteenth century philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. We will reads Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, and Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and philosophy of history to show their new confidence in human reason; and Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals, and Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Anxiety for responses to Kant and Hegel, and the subsequent crisis in confidence in reason and the loss of absolute values that give rise to the issues of modern life. We will also discuss the Influence of these works on psychology, social science, religion, and ethics.