Course Info: HACU-0259
| Course | HACU-0259 Thinking the Absolute |
| Long Title | Thinking the Absolute: Metaphysics and the New Realism |
| Term | 2017F |
| Note(s) |
Textbook information |
| Meeting Info | R.W. Kern Center 106 on M,W from 4:00-5:20 |
| Faculty | Christoph Cox |
| Capacity | 23 |
| Available | 4 |
| Waitlist | 0 |
| Distribution(s) | |
| Cumulative Skill(s) | Writing and Research |
| Additional Info | In this course, students are expected to spend approximately 6 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time. |
| Description | Can we grasp the way the world really is or are our concepts and ideas always mediated by conceptual schemes, linguistic categories, and social positioning? While the latter view has dominated philosophy and cultural theory for the past half century, the former view has become increasingly prominent. In this course, we examined the work of a variety of philosophers who argue that our thought can grasp "the absolute": the neo-rationalism of Alain Badiou, Quentin Meillassoux, and Ray Brassier; the neo-materialism of Manuel DeLanda, Jane Bennett, and Karen Barad; and the immateralism, incorporealism, or neo-idealism of Graham Harman, Elizabeth Grosz, Iain Hamilton Grant, and Markus Gabriel. Students were required to frame the discussion during two class periods, write weekly argument summaries, and submit a midterm and a final essay. |