Heidegger's Being & Time
Term:
Spring 2012
Subject Code:
GPHI
Course Number:
6053
Martin Heidegger is arguably the most
important philosopher in the twentieth-century Continental tradition, and Being
and Time is his magnum opus. The aim of this course is simply to read carefully
and critically the first division of the book and as much of the second
division as we can cover. We will also look at some of Heidegger’s later texts.
The objective of the course is for students to have a firm grasp on the key
philosophical issues and concepts raised by the project that Heidegger called
fundamental ontology. These include: Heidegger’s relation to Husserl and his
critical adoption of phenomenological method; his critique of traditional
epistemology; his account of the nature of the world and the relation of
persons to world; his critique of the Cartesian understanding of world and
space; his account of intersubjectivity and his critique of modernity; the key
concept of ‘thrown projection’ and an explanation of the various ‘existentials’
(state-of-mind, understanding, and discourse); his concepts of thrownness,
falling, and inauthenticity; his account of moods and anxiety as the basic
attunement of the human being; the meaning of care as the being of the human
being; his critique of the realism-vs.-idealism debate; his concept of truth
and his critique of the traditional concept of truth; and analyses of
being-toward-death, conscience, authenticity, and historicity
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