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HEIDEGGER, PHENOMENOLOGY, AND SOCIAL THOUGHT

Committee on Degrees in Social Studies
Harvard University
Social Studies 98ng

Dr. Rodrigo Chacn Fall Semester, 2012
Hilles Library 54 Wednesdays, 4-6
Office hours: Fridays 2-4 Barker Center Caf Barker Center 103
chacon@fas.harvard.edu

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was the most influential thinker in the twentieth century
Continental tradition. Perhaps no other thinker since Hegel has exercised a comparable
sovereignty over fields ranging from philosophy and theology, to ecology, psychology,
psychiatry, architecture, the theory of art, and, increasingly, social and political thought.
Few thinkers have also been as controversial. Indeed, Heideggers support of National
Socialism has cast a long shadow over his dazzling fame.

In this tutorial, we will begin to read Heidegger as he was reador heardby young
undergraduates in the early 1920s. We will then turn to his philosophical masterpiece,
Being and Time, and to his writings on science, technology, and politics. The second part
of the tutorial will be devoted to Heideggers critics. Choosing from a long list of
scholars who have sought to think with and against Heideggerincluding Hannah
Arendt, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Strauss, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel
Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Giorgio Agambenwe shall focus on three thinkers
whose work serves, both to shed critical light on Heidegger, and to open new
philosophical horizons for thinking about the social beyond the alternatives covered in
Social Studies 10. These thinkers are Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002); Emmanuel
Levinas (1906-1995); and Hans Jonas (1903-1993).


READINGS (available for purchase on Amazon and on reserve at Lamont library. All
other readings can be downloaded from the course website):

Martin Heidegger, Towards the Definition of Philosophy (Continuum, 2008)
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (SUNY, 2010)
Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (Harper, 1977)
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2
nd
revised ed. (Continuum, 1989)
Emmanuel Levinas, Ethics and Infinity (Duquesne, 1985)
Emmanuel Levinas, Time and the Other (Duquesne, 1990)


EXPECTATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

This tutorial is designed to be both a seminar and a research workshop. Its success will
depend on the informed participation of every member in our weekly meetings. Students
will also be expected to communicate beyond the class through weekly blog entries and
collaborative assignments.
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A central goal of a junior tutorial is to provide students with research skills and
experiences that will prepare them to write their senior theses. The following
requirements have been designed to achieve that goal:

Weekly blog entries Every week the group will be divided in pairs. Every Monday
(before midnight), half of the group will post short responses to the reading (max. 500
words). The other half will reply to their partners response by Tuesday (also before
midnight).

Presentations Beginning on week 3, each student will prepare a short presentation (of 5-
10 mins.) of the weeks reading assignment. The purpose of these presentations is not to
summarize the readings, but to raise critical questions to initiate our discussions.

Research paper
The big question. Think of a big question or problem that you would like to
investigate during the semester. Write this question down and explain why it is
interesting in a short memo of around 500 words. The big question is due on week
3 (September 26) during tutorial. (The question may also be small with a narrow
focus, but it should be big in terms of your interests or the things that matter to
you.)
The answerable question. After discussing your big question with me, you should
narrow it down into a version that can be answered within the limits of a research
paper. Write down your answerable question, including notes on the sources with
which you plan to address it in a memo of between 500 and 1000 words. The
answerable question is due on week 6 (October 10) during tutorial.
The prospectus. In one single-spaced page (you may use 10-font, but not
smaller!), prepare a prospectus including 4 points: i.) your question; ii.) the
problem or puzzle it raisesor why it is interesting; iii.) your guiding hypothesis
(addressing the question); iv.) the steps your paper will follow to develop the
hypothesis. Include (as a separate document) an annotated bibliography with at
least 10 sources, explaining briefly (max. 3 sentences) how each source will
contribute to developing your argument. The prospectus is due on week 9
(October 31).
The final research paper will be due on Friday December 7 at 5pm in my
mailbox in Social Studies. The final paper should be 20-25 pp. (double-spaced;
12-font; 1-inch margins).

Note: I will not read drafts of the final research paper. However, I will be happy
to discuss your paper projects at length. Extensions will only be granted on the
basis of personal emergency or medical necessity verified with a note from your
doctor or Resident Dean.

One-on-one meetings We should meet at least three times during the semester, ideally on
weeks 3 or 4 (to discuss the big question), 6 or 7 (to discuss the answerable question),
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and 10 (to discuss your prospectus). Please schedule an appointment with me during
office hours (Fridays 2-4pm, Barker Center cafeteria).

Grading I will use a point system to make grading more transparent (please see below for
the scale I will use). The totality of assignments in the tutorial, plus attendance and
participation, will add up to 1000 points. See below for extra-credit options.
Blog entries: 10 points per response for a total of 120 points (blog entries will not
be graded; merely writing down your reaction to the reading will count for 10
points).
Presentations: 50 points
The big question: 50 points
The answerable question: 50 points
The prospectus: 130 points
The final research paper: 500 points
Attendance and participation: 100 points
Extra credit: short, 5 min. presentations of recommended reading including a
one-page handout for the group: 20 points. You may also team up to present more
than one recommended reading together, and also find relevant literature beyond
the syllabus to present.

945-1000 A
895-944 A-
845-894 B+
795-844 B
745-794 B-
695-744 C+
645-694 C
595-644 C-
545-594 D+
495-544 D
445-494 D-
444 and below F

Late papers will be graded 1/3 of a letter grade lower for each day that they are late.

Collaboration policy:

Collaboration Permitted in Written Work
Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this
course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to
share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if
you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written
work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects
your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this
discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with
your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc.), you must also
acknowledge this assistance.
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SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND READINGS:

PART I: HEIDEGGER

Week 1 (9/12) The Young Heidegger & Phenomenology

Jean-Paul Sartre, Intentionality: A Fundamental Idea of Husserls
Phenomenology (2 pp.)
Edmund Husserl, Philosophy as Rigorous Science, 71-147
Martin Heidegger, The Idea of Philosophy and the Problem of
Worldview, 3-50

Recommended:
Steven Crowell, Husserlian Phenomenology, 9-31
Richard J. Bernstein, The Restructuring of Social and Political
Theory, part III: The Phenomenological Alternative, 115-171

Week 2 (9/19) The Young Heidegger & Phenomenology (continued)

Martin Heidegger, The Idea of Philosophy and the Problem of
Worldview, pp. 51-99
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Preface to Phenomenology of
Perception, vii-xxiv

Recommended:
Mark A. Wrathall, Existential Phenomenology, 31-48
Richard Polt, Ereignis (first section only)
Steven Crowell, Philosophy as a Vocation: Heidegger and
University Reform in the Early Interwar Years, 255-276

Week 3 (9/26) Being and Time I

Heidegger, Being and Time, 1-11 (pp. 1-52); 14-16 (pp. 63-75);
18 (pp. 81-87)

Recommended:
Polt, Heidegger: An Introduction, pp. 23-55

Week 4 (10/3) Being and Time II

Heidegger, Being and Time, 25-27 (pp. 112-126); 31 (pp. 138-
143); 35-41 (pp. 161-188); Division II, 51-53 (pp. 242-256),
74-5 (pp. 364-372)

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Recommended:
Polt, Heidegger, pp. 60-72; 75-80; 85-88; 100-106

Week 5 (10/10) Science & Technology

Heidegger, Modern Science, Metaphysics, and Mathematics, in
Basic Writings, pp. 267-307; The Age of the World Picture, in
The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, pp. 115-
155

Week 6 (10/17) Technology & Politics

Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology, in The
Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, pp. 3-35;
The Self-Assertion of the German University, pp. 470-480

Recommended:
Jacques Derrida, Of Spirit


PART II: HEIDEGGERS CRITICS

Week 7 (10/24) Language & The Art of Understanding

Hans-Georg Gadamer, Martin Heidegger85 Years, pp. 111-
120; From Word to Concept: The Task of Hermeneutics as
Philosophy, 1-12; Man and Language, pp. 59-69; The
Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem, pp. 3-17; Truth and
Method, pp. 265-300

Recommended:
Charles Taylor, Heidegger on Language; Self-Interpreting
Animals; Gadamer on the Human Sciences; Richard J.
Bernstein, The Constellation of Hermeneutics, Critical Theory,
and Deconstruction; Georgia Warnke, Hermeneutics, Ethics, and
Politics; Robert Bernasconi, You Dont Know What Im
Talking About: Alterity and the Hermeneutical Ideal

Week 8 (10/31) Continued

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 300-362; 438-456

Recommended:
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books I, X, chapters 6-9
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Jrgen Habermas, Hans-Georg Gadamer: Urbanizing the
Heideggerian Province,; On the Logic of the Social Sciences;
Karl-Otto Apel, Regulative Ideas or Truth-Happening?: An
Attempt to Answer the Question of the Conditions of the
Possibility of Valid Understanding (and Gadamers Reply, 95-
97); Georgia Warnke, Social Identity as Interpretation, 307-329;
Charles Taylor, Understanding the Other: A Gadamerian View on
Conceptual Schemes; Gianni Vattimo, Gadamer and the Problem
of Ontology

Week 9 (11/7) Ethics & The Other

Emmanuel Levinas, Freiburg, Husserl, and Phenomenology, 32-
39; Ethics and Infinity (selections); Time and the Other (entire),
39-94

Recommended:
Simon Critchley, The Ethics of Deconstruction, appendix on
Levinas; Michael L. Morgan, The Cambridge Introduction to
Emmanuel Levinas, 16-36; Luce Irigaray, The Fecundity of the
Caress: A Reading of Levinas, Totality and Infinity,
Phenomenology of Eros, 119-145

Week 10 (11/14) Continued

Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate (selections); Levinas, Is it
Righteous to Be? (selections); Peace and Proximity, 161-171;
Philosophy and the Idea of Infinity, 47-61; The Rights of Man
and the Rights of the Other, 116-125

Recommended:
Samuel Moyn, Origins of the Other, 164-238
Francois Raffoul, Levinass Reversal of Responsibility, 163-220

Week 11 (11/28) Technology, Responsibility & Existential Biology

Hans Jonas, Philosophy at the End of the Century: Retrospect and
Prospect; The Phenomenon of Life, Prologue:; ch. 9: Gnosticism,
Existentialism, and Nihilism; ch. 1: Life, Death, and the Body in
the Theory of Being; ch. 8: The Practical Uses of Theory

Recommended:
Lawrence Vogel, Natural-Law Judaism? The Genesis of Bioethics
in Hans Jonas, Leo Strauss, and Leon Kass; Martin Yaffe,
Reason and Feeling in Hans Jonass Existential Biology

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Week 12 (12/5) Continued

Jonas, Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New
Tasks of Ethics, 3-20; Mortality and Morality, chs. 1-4: The
Need of Reason: Grounding an Imperative of Responsibility in the
Phenomenon of Life

Recommended:
William R. LaFleur, Infants, Paternalism, and Bioethics: Japans
Grasp of Hans Jonass Insistence on Intergenerational
Responsibility; Martin Yaffe, Reason and Feeling in Hans
Jonass Existential Biology, Arne Naesss Deep Ecology, and
Spinozas Ethics; Carl Mitcham, Philosophical Biology and
Environmentalism