PHILOSOPHY IN CENTRAL EUROPE

CEP006

[ Reading material , Instructor , How to Obtain Credits ]

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the schools of philosophical thoughts prevalent throughout Central Europe.

In the course will be discussed many issues that are in focus of attention to many philosophers nowadays. Central European point of view on philosophical issues is very specific by its history and tradition. Therefore, the core of the course consists in the study of philosophical texts and their discussion.

Content:

1. Introduction to the course

Theses:

• Acquaintance with materials to be read
• Structure of the course
• The requirements for examination

2. Why is it important to pay attention to the philosophical way of thinking?

Theses:

• We are living through important time of history and philosophy can reflect the problems of the time
• European philosophy and contemporary problems, especially problem of globalization
• Philosophy as a inner thought’s world of man
• How does opinion arise?

Readings:

A Better World is Possible: Alternatives to Economic Globalization.
This is a summary of an upcoming report by the Alternatives Committee of the International Forum on Globalization.
http://www.ifg.org

3. Historical roots of philosophy

Theses:

• Social situation in Athens
• Rhetorics and sophistry contra philosophy
• Gods and people; oracle and dialectics

Readings:

http://academics.triton.edu/uc/ucreads.html

4. The problem of beginning and foundation

Theses:

• Ontological tradition in Greek’s philosophy
• Parmenides as founder classical ontology
• Plato and his ontological conception

Tasks:

• Interpretation of the texts

Readings:

http://home.ican.net/~arandall/Parmenides/index.html

http://plato.evansville.edu/texts/jowett/republic.htm

5. Why we revert to Socrates

Theses:

• Socrates and his daimon
• Socrates and dialectic
• Value’s orientation
• Marginal situation

Readings:

http://plato.evansville.edu/texts/jowett/symposium.htm

6. Existential schism of Hamlet

Thesis:

• Motif of double world
• Moral of great ideas contra moral of everydayness
• Problem of conscience

Readings:

http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/hamlet/index.html

7. Marginal situations and the base philosophy of existence

Theses:

• Ontological difference
• Freedom as a base for human existence
• J.P. Sartre’s philosophy

Readings:

Steiner: Heidegger (CEU library)
http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/sartre.html

8. The absurdity of being in Franz Kafka’s world

Theses:

• Kafka’s work
• Kafka and the world of alienation
• Biography of Kafka

Readings:

Robertson, R.: Kafka pp. 1 – 37
http://www.kafka.org/transl/english/metamorphosis.htm

9.Excursion on the Kafka’s places

Visiting:

• Café Arco
• Museum F. Kafka
• Jewish cemetery – Kafka's grave

10. German philosophical tradition

Theses:

• Kant and his Copernican turn
• Hegel’s philosophical method and system
• Post-Hegel’s development of philosophy (positivism, Marxism, irrationalism)

Readings:

http://www.its.uidaho.edu/mickelsen/texts/Hegel%20Phen/hegel%20phen%20ch%204%20A.htm

11. Alienation in the works Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm and K. Kosik

Theses:

• H. Marcuse: One Dimensional Man
• E. Fromm: To Have or to Be
• K. Kosik: Dialectic of Concrete

Readings:

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/index.htm

12. Does history has any sense?

Theses:

• Methodological approach to history (progress, hermeneutics method
• On toleration
• The way of Integration
• Needs and Interests

Readings:

Voltaire: On Treatise on Toleration
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/voltaire.html

On Toleration
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/poli/morrell/address.htm

13. Second sex

Theses:

• S. de Beauvoire: Second Sex
• The life of M. Jesenská (Antigona versus Marketa Samsova)
• Ladies alternatives to the history

Readings:

Simon de Beauvoire: Second Sex
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/2ndsex.htm

Bulgakov: Master and Margarita
http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/bulgakov/public_html/intro.html

14. Civilization versus culture

Theses:

• Civilization as a dignity of life
• Culture as a discomfort of an innovation
• The need of a balance between civilization and culture

Readings:

Civilization versus Culture
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2001/1001mono.htm
http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/sections/culture/

Third Culture
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/who3c.html

15. Czech culture

Theses:

• Illustration of Czech culture in literature and arts

Readings:

http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/notebooks/capek.html

http://fmv.vse.cz/cz/cz/litera20.html

16. Education and its Czech tradition

Theses:

• Comenius, his life and work
• Original meaning of education
• The future of education

Readings:

Benes, E.: The Teacher of Nations pp. 40 – 88
http://www.comeniusfoundation.org/comenius.htm

17. Problem of cognition and Science

Theses:

• Scientific knowledge and its influence on development of society
• Socratic type of rationality
• Cartesian type of rationality
• Constructive type of rationality

Readings:

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/95-science.html

http://www.philosophy.ubc.ca/faculty/savitt/phil460/salmon.htm

18. Mind and Brain I.

Theses:

• Functional model of mind
• Role of sleep on constitution of a long-term memory
• Generators and inhibitors of thinking

Readings:

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/Order_38.html

19. Mind and Brain II.

Theses:

• Mind - body problem
• Physicalism
• Mentalism
• Dualism

• Identism

Readings:

http://ling.ucsc.edu/~chalmers/mind.html

20. Postmodernism

Theses:

• Man as an evolution selector
• The end of great ideas
• Positives and negative of postmodernism

Readings:

http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html

21. Does ecological crisis exist?

Theses:

• Critical points from the point of view environmentalists
• Climatic changes
• Raw materials
• Litters
• Etc.

Readings:

http://www.nbi.dk/~natphil/salthe/natphilecol.2001.html

22. A. Toffler’s future shock

Theses:

• The main causes of acceleration
• Innovation processes and their influence on society and individuals
• Social continuation of evolution

Readings:

http://www.skypoint.com/members/mfinley/toffler.htm

23. Philosophical turn to man. S. Freud and his conception of man

Theses:

• Philosophical anthropology
• Philosophy of voluntarism (A. Schopennhauer, F. Nietsche
• S. Freud and his psychoanalytical method

Readings:

http://65.107.211.206/science/freud/Freud_OV.html

24. Sleep and its structure

Theses:

• Sleep and its structure
• Function of REM phase of sleep
• Memory and sleep
• Sleep and creativity

Readings:

http://www.medfak.uu.se/fysiologi/Lectures/Sleep.html

25. Return to philosophy

Theses:

• Stream of consciousness
• Horizontal and vertical visions
• Rhythm, everydayness and its structure

Literature:

W. James: Stream of Consciousness
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/jimmy11.htm

26. Oral examination involving an oral defense of a written essay

Reading material:

CESP course binder materials (materials to all lectures are in the binder) + recommended books as accessible in the library of Central-European University, Prokopova ul. (street), Nr. 9, Praha 3

Instructor:

Doc. PhDr. Karel Pstruzina
Department of Philosophy
University of Economics Prague

In 1967 graduated from the Philosophical faculty at Charles University with a degree in philosophy and political economics. In 1978 he received CSc (an equivalent of PhD). He became docent (associated professor) in 1980. He has been teaching at the University of Economics Prague since 1967. In years 1981-2000 he was the head of the Department of Philosophy where he is still working. In his scientific work, he concentrated first on the philosophy and methodology of scientific research, and later he studied philosophical problems of human thinking in relation to creativity and evolution of scientific knowledge, and philosophical aspects of cognitive sciences. On this topic, he published many papers and spoke on world scientific congresses. He was also invited to lecture at several well-known European universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Munich, Heidelberg, Moscow, Dubrovnik).

How to Obtain Credits

Assessment criteria and structure:
Written essay - 70%
Presentation - 10%
Oral examination - 20%

Grading:

93 - 100%  A  (Excellent)
85 -  92%  B  (Very Good)
77 -  84%  C  (Average)
69 -  76%  D  (Below Average)
61 -  68%  E  (Failure)
55 -  60%  Fx (Fail - possible to retake the exam)
54% - less F  (Fail)