• Attendance of all class sessions.


• One Text Summary* (1-1.5 pages) on a selection from the assigned reading for either January 21 or January 28, in conjunction with attendance of the class session, and to be handed in at the end of the class session on those days. Detailed assignments will be distributed in class and posted to this syllabus.
  

• Either one or two* Text Preparations (2-3 pages) - on the assigned readings for Feb. 11, Feb. 25, March 11, March 18, March 25, in conjunction with attendance of the class session, and to be handed in at the end of the class session on those days.  Specific assignments for each week will be posted to this syllabus the week before.

Note: Text Summary/Text Preparation assignments are designed to help you prepare the reading assignment for a particular class meeting, in conjunction with your participation in that class meeting.  Therefore, these assignments consist of the written assignment to be handed in at the class meeting at which it is due plus attendance of the full class session. No submissions outside of those class times will be accepted.

*If you plan to hand in two Text Preparations, please complete Text Preparation 1 or 2 so as to allow time to receive feedback on the first assignment before preparing the second one, from among Text Preparation 3, 4, or 5. (Please contact Prof. Hollander if scheduling difficulties arise.)

• Midterm Exam and Final Exam will consist of essay questions involving textual analysis.  The essay questions will be made known in advance and the exams will be open-book.

Final Paper Option.  At the discretion of the instructors, students who do well on the Text Summary/Preparation assignments and on the Midterm Exam may elect to write a 6-8-page paper in place of the Final Exam (with a proposal submitted for approval in advance; a detailed assignment will be communicated). 

Grades will be based on the following:

1. if you complete only one Text Preparation assignment: Text Summary (7%), Text Preparation (15%), Attendance (5%), Midterm Exam (33%), Final Exam/Final Paper (40%).
   


2. if you complete two Text Preparation assignments: Text Summary (7%), Text Preparations (12.5% each), Attendance (5%), Midterm Exam (28%), Final Exam/Final Paper (35%). (However, if by the end of the course it turns out that the first grade calculation method works out to your advantage, that method will be used, using the higher of your two Text Preparation grades.)

To arrange an academic accommodation for a disability, please contact Student Accessibility Services (SAS), Tel. 905-525-9140 ext. 28652; sas@mcmaster.ca.  Academic accommodations must be arranged for each term of study.

LAPTOPS AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES

• The use of laptops in class is discouraged, except where there is a special need. Recent research suggests (1) that "Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers"; and (2) that taking notes by hand has distinct learning advantages over laptop notetaking in class.


• Please silence and refrain from using cell phones and other electronic devices during class meetings.

McMaster University has a strict policy concerning Academic Integrity: "You are expected to exhibit honesty and use ethical behaviour in all aspects of the learning process.  Academic credentials you earn are rooted in principles of honesty and academic integrity. Academic dishonesty is to knowingly act or fail to act in a way that results or could result in unearned academic credit or advantage. This behaviour can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: "Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty"), and/or suspension or expulsion from the university. It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty.  For information on the various types of academic dishonesty please refer to the Academic Integrity Policy, located at www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity. The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty: 1. Plagiarism, e.g., the submission of work that is not one's own or for which other credit has been obtained. 2. Improper collaboration in group work. 3. Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations." Please let us know if you have any questions on how this policy applies to your work for this course. Privacy of Information. Some of the communications among the instructors and the students in this course will be over e-mail. Students should be aware that, when they access the electronic components of this course, private information such as first and last names and e-mail addresses may become apparent to all other students in the same course. Continuation in this course will be deemed consent to this disclosure. If you have any questions or concerns about such disclosure please discuss this with the course instructors.

You are advised to retain copies of any written work you submit for this class, and all your research notes, until you have received an official grade.

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SCHEDULE

At certain points in the course it may make good sense to modify the schedule outlined below. The instructors reserve the right to modify elements of the course and will notify students accordingly (in class, by e-mail to participants, and by updating this online syllabus).

Wednesday, January 7: INTRODUCTION

Friday, January 9

Friedrich Nietzsche, Parable of the Madman (from The Gay Science [1882] [Jan. 7 handout; or print out from linked file]

Martin Heidegger, "Nietzsche's Word: 'God is Dead'" (1943), from Off the Beaten Track, ed. and trans. Julian Young and Kenneth Haynes [Coursepack 1]:

• p. 194 ("Only now has even a faint light...") - p. 195 middle ("...conform to the being of beings, the will to power") [Coursepack 1]


• p. 199 ("In what way is this man mad?" - end)

Original German edition: "Nietzsches Wort 'Gott ist tot'" in Holzwege (Gesamtausgabe, vol. 5) [book on reserve]

Optional Background Reading on Heidegger:

Thomas Sheehan, "Heidegger, Martin" (1998/2003), in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy [online]: introduction, sections 1, 2, 3, 4

Richard Kearney, "Martin Heidegger," in Modern Movements in European Philosophy, 2nd ed. (1994): pp. 28-44 [Coursepack 1]

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Wednesday, January 14

Heidegger, "Nietzsche's Word: 'God is Dead,'" cont'd:

• p. 162 (following Nietzsche's "The Madman") - p. 165 middle ("...business transactions")

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Friday, January 16

Martin Heidegger, "The Onto-Theo-Logical Constitution of Metaphysics" (1957), in Identity and Difference, trans. Joan Stambaugh: pp. 58 ("Metaphysics thinks...") - p. 62 top ("case with a difference") [purchase book]

Greek alphabet table

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Wednesday, January 21

Jean-Paul Sartre, "Existentialism Is a Humanism" (1946), trans. Carol Macomber, pp. 20-23, 27-29 and 52 ("But there is...") - 54 top [Coursepack 1]

Martin Heidegger, "Letter on 'Humanism'" (1946), trans. Frank A. Capuzzi, in Pathmarks, ed. William McNeill [Coursepack 2]:

• p. 241 ("You ask..." - "thinking is what it is according to its essential origin")
• p. 242 ("When thinking comes to an end" - "what must be rejected as unintelligible")

Original German edition: "Brief über den 'Humanismus'" in Wegmarken (Gesamtausgabe, vol. 9) [book on reserve]

Text Summary 1 due in class on January 21 from students with last names beginning in A-L. (Assignment to be distributed in class/posted to this syllabus on January 14)

Friday, January 23

Heidegger, "Letter on 'Humanism,'" cont'd:

• p. 243 line 9 ("The widely and rapidly spreading...") - 246 top.

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January 28, 30

"Letter on 'Humanism,'" cont'd:

• p. 246 - p. 249 bottom:  "the ecstatic relation to the clearing of being."
• p. 250, two short bits:   (1) "By way of contrast..." - "oblivion of the truth of being";  and (2) two sentences near the bottom of the page, beginning "Sartre's key proposition..."
  
• p. 251 ("But in order...") - p. 252 ("...in the light of being.")
• p. 263 bottom ("Because we are speaking against 'humanism'...") - 265 top.
• p. 266 top - 268 to first paragraph break ("...in the metaphysical sense")
  

Text Summary 2 due in class on January 28 from students who did not submit Text Summary 1.

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February 4, 6

Heidegger, "The Onto-Theo-Logical Constitution of Metaphysics":

• pp. 49 - 51 line 4 ("...what it is")
• p. 58 ("Metaphysics thinks...") - p. 60 ("...thought out") (discussed at Jan. 16 class meeting)
• p. 65 para. 2 ("In our attempt...") - p. 66 ("...fruit cannot be bought")
• p. 71 near the bottom ("The insight into...") - p. 73 bottom ("...Nietzsche")

Jean-Luc Marion, God Without Being: Hors-texte (1982), trans. Thomas A. Carlson [purchase book]:

• "Preface to English Edition," pp. xix-xxii line 4 ("...situation of thought")
• pp. 25–29 ("...that which it apprehends under the name of 'God'")

Original French edition: Dieu sans l'être [book on reserve]

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February 11, 13

Jean-Luc Marion, God Without Being (cont'd):

• pp. 25-29 middle ("...that which it apprehends under the name of 'God'")
• p. 33 ("The first idolatry...") - 35, 9th line from bottom ("...without immediately betraying its insufficiency")
• p. 36 ("What have we gained...") - 37, 4th line from bottom ("...Being as Being")
• p. 39 middle ("Thus, as and because nihilism...") - p. 40, 12th line from the bottom ("...can have the leisure to render itself manifest"). (Compare: "Letter on 'Humanism'": 267 [discussed in class on Jan. 30] and 258).
• p. 41 top – p. 44 paragraph 2, line 4 ("...second idolatry")
• p. 45 ("But what indeed...") - 47 paragraph 1, line 6 ("...assure it or confirm it")
• p. 48 ("b) There is more:...") - 49 section break ("...to love?")
  

Text Preparation 1 due in class on Feb. 11 from some students

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February 25, 27

selections from:

Emmanuel Levinas, "Philosophy and the Idea of the Infinite" (1957), trans. Alphonso Lingis, in Adriaan Peperzak, To the Other. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas [Coursepack 1]

-----, Ethics and Infinity. Conversations with Philippe Nemo (1982), trans. Richard A. Cohen [purchase book]

Original French editions: "La philosophie et l'idée de l'infini" in Peperzak, To the Other; Ethique et infini [books on reserve]

Detailed Reading Assignment for February 25 and 27

Text Preparation 2 due in class on Feb. 25 from some students

Optional Background Reading on Levinas:

Robert Bernasconi, "Levinas, Emmanuel," in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1998) [online / Mills Reference]

Dana Hollander, "Levinas, Emmanuel," from The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, 2nd ed., 2005 [handout / online (Note that the online version contains some errors.)]

Midterm Exam Preparation Sheet to be distributed in class on Feb. 25

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March 4: MIDTERM EXAM

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March 6, 11

Levinas, "Philosophy and the Idea of the Infinite":

• first paragraph of section 5: "...must participate in it"
• 113: "We separate ourselves from..." – 114 para. 2, line 5: "It is goodness."

Levinas, Ethics and Infinity: 21-25, 75-77, 85-92, 95-101, 105-110, 113-22

Text Preparation 3 due in class on March 11 from some students.

March 13 - NO CLASS

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March 18

Levinas, Ethics and Infinity, 113-22, cont'd

-----, "Revelation in the Jewish Tradition" (1977), in Beyond the Verse. Talmudic Readings and Lectures, trans. Gary D. Mole [Coursepack 1]:

• 141-47 ("...philosophical profession today")
• 148 (section II.3) - 150

Original French edition: "La Révélation dans la tradition juive," in L'Au-delà du verset [book on reserve]

Text Preparation 4 due in class on March 18 from some students.

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March 20

Derrida, "How to Avoid Speaking: Denials" (1986), trans. K. Frieden and E. Rottenberg, in Psyche. Inventions of the Other, Volume II (Stanford University Press, 2008) [Coursepack 1]:

• p. 143 - p. 147 ("...in two moments")

Original French edition: "Comment ne pas parler: Dénégations" in Psyché. Inventions de l'autre [book on reserve]

Optional Background Reading on Derrida:

• Kevin Hart, "Jacques Derrida" in Graham Oppy and Nick Trakakis (eds.), The History of Western Philosophy of Religion (2009), vol. 5: Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Religion [article on reserve]


• David Braine, "Negative Theology" (1998), in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy [online]: esp. the introductory section (sections 1 and 4 are also relevant)


• Leonard Lawlor, "Jacques Derrida" (2006-2014), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [online]: esp. introductory section, section 1, section 3

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March 25

Derrida, "How to Avoid Speaking: Denials," cont'd:

• p. 147 ("1. No, what I write is not 'negative theology'...") - p. 155 top.

Text Preparation 5 due in class on March 25 from some students.

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March 27 - No class, to enable attendance of Jean-Luc Marion's lecture, the opening event at the conference "Breached Horizons: The Work of Jean-Luc Marion" at King's University College at Western University in London, Ontario (March 27-29)

Optional Lecture Report Assignment (due March 31, may be completed in lieu of a Text Preparation assignment)

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April 1

Derrida, "How to Avoid Speaking: Denials," cont'd:

• 176 middle - 178 middle
• 181, para. 2, line 2: "However, at the opening..." - 182
• 183, para. 1: "Thus an event prescribes..." - 184: "...and finally to be silent"

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April 8

Derrida, "How to Avoid Speaking: Denials," cont'd:

• 186: "C. I had therefore decided..." - 187 top
• 188 line 8: "'A Christian philosophy..." - 195

Final Exam Preparation Sheet to be distributed in class.

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Final Exam - Friday, April 24, ABB 136, 7 p.m.

Copyright © 2011-15 Dana Hollander and Copyright © 2015 James Sikkema