Phenomenology

The phenomenological movement, initiated at the beginning of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl, has had an enormous impact on subsequent philosophy and social theory, in terms of both its many adherents and its many detractors. This course explores the origins of the idea of “phenomenology” in late modern philosophy, and the popularizing of phenomenological method by Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and MerleauPonty. Other topics may include its development in later French philosophy (Ricoeur, Levinas, Derrida, Marion, Nancy, et. al), or its relationship to so-called “existentialist” thought, to Christian personalism (via Scheler), to Neo-Thomism, or to pragmatism. Specific recent figures covered will vary.