Past Courses

WINTER / SPRING 2024

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Contact
Heidegger: Introduction to Philosophy	n/a	DePaul	William McNeill	Wmcneill -at- depaul.edu

Classical German Philosophy	In this course, we will focus on the ideals of grounding, unity, and systematicity in German Idealism, reactions and counter-movements in the early Romantic movement. We will therefore begin with the “Spinozism Controversy” ignited by Friedrich Jacobi in 1785, turn to the reception of Kant in that context by Reinhold and Fichte, and then the development of early German Idealism and Romanticism in Jena, through figures such as Schelling, Schiller, Goethe, Schlegel, and Hegel. Students will become conversant with the major projects and schools of thought in the wake of Kant’s Critical Philosophy.	Loyola University, Chicago	Naomi Fisher	Nfisher1 -at- luc.edu

Introduction to Hegelian Metaphysics	This course is an introduction to Hegelian Metaphysics.	Northwestern University	Mark Alznauer	m-alznauer -at- northwestern.edu

Kant on Moral Meaning	Kant is known mostly as a moral theorist. In that capacity, he argued that morality was a matter of pure practical rationality and that we are unconditionally obligated to a moral law, the categorical imperative. But Kant also noted that we do not experience our moral lives in those theoretical terms, and in several texts, he explored the various ways in which our moral vocation is ordinarily experienced, what it means to us, and how it comes to matter to us. In that context, he discusses such topics as conscience, virtue and the formation of character, moral education, whether human beings are radically evil, how the claims of morality fit into a human life as a whole, and the possibility of a moral community. These themes will comprise the topics of this seminar. The texts will include sections from his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, his Doctrine of Virtue, his Lectures on Ethics, Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, and essays on the problems of casuistry.	University of Chicago	Robert Pippin	r-pippin -at- uchicago.edu

Nietzsche’s Theory of Value	The seminar will explore aspects of Nietzsche’s theory of value, especially regarding morality and aesthetics, in the context of two major intellectual 19th-century influences on his thought: naturalism (especially through Schopenhauer and German Materialism) and Romanticism. The first half of the seminar (led by Leiter) will emphasize naturalistic themes in his understanding of morality in On the Genealogy of Morality and excerpts from Beyond Good and Evil. The second half (led by Forster) will examine the influence of Romanticism, including in The Birth of Tragedy and selections from later works.	University of Chicago	Michael Forster; Brian Leiter	mnforste -at- uchicago.edu bleiter -at- uchicago.edu

Desire, Practical Reason, and the Good	n/a	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	Nataliya Palatnik	palatnik -at- uwm.edu

Self-Consciousness and Self-Knowledge	n/a	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	William Bristow	bristow -at- uwm.edu

Modern Philosophy: Kant’s Third Critique	This seminar will be on Kant’s Third Critique, in particular his account of aesthetic and teleological judgments, with an eye to understanding what unifies the work as a whole. It will not presuppose prior knowledge of Kant’s philosophy.	University of Illinois Chicago	Daniel Sutherland	sutherla at uic.edu

FALL 2023-2024

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Contact
Kant & 19th-Century Philosophy	This course focuses on a study of Kant and some of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century, such as Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. Typical questions pertain to the role of history in shaping our self-understanding in science, religion, and politics; the emergence of radical critiques of modern culture; the origins, nature, and limits of human knowledge; and the power dynamics that shape our identities and intersubjective relations.	DePaul University	Avery Goldman	agoldman at depaul.edu

Phenomenology & Existentialism: Merleau-Ponty	This seminar is devoted to a close reading of Phenomenology of Perception (1945), a major work of phenomenology and one of the most important texts of post-Kantian European philosophy. We will work through the text sequentially, occasionally informed by select secondary literature, and will reconstruct its most significant arguments and conclusions. Merleau-Ponty’s accounts of science, embodiment, intentionality, space and time, sociality, and the perceived world will be of particular interest. These arguments will help us evaluate his broader accounts of consciousness, reality, and world, and his formulation of subject-world correlation. The seminar will give students a sense of Merleau-Ponty’s distinctive and enduring contributions to phenomenology, post-Kantian philosophy, and the transcendental tradition.	Loyola University	Dimitris Apostolopoulos	dapostolopoulos at luc.edu

Contemporary Continental Philosophy	An examination of leading issues in contemporary movements in continental philosophy (e.g. existentialism, hermeneutics, poststructuralism) in authors such as Habermas, Gadamer, Sartre, Derrida, and Foucault.	University of Notre Dame	Stephen Watson	swatson at nd.edu

Kant’s Theoretical Philosophy	The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant is one of the most important works in the area of epistemology and metaphysics in the history of Western Philosophy. In this course we study the work carefully. Some of the main questions that are addressed in the work are: How is rational (or a priori) knowledge possible? How is empirical knowledge possible? What is the nature of space and of time? How do we know (if we do) that the natural world is causally ordered? If events in nature are governed by mechanistic causal laws, how is human freedom possible? — For aid in understanding Kant’s positions and arguments in the Critique, we will read selections from secondary works as well.	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	William Bristow	bristow – at – uwm.edu

Historical Seminar: Nietzsche	Explores the writings of key historical figures from the following four periods in the history of philosophy. This seminar focuses on the writings of Nietzsche.	Wheaton College	Ryan Kemp	ryan.kemp at wheaton.edu

Existential Philosophy	Study of a selection of the major writings of the more important existential philosophers, e.g., Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and de Beauvoir.	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Thomas Byrne	thbyrne at illinois.edu

SPRING 2022-2023

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Contact
Heidegger	Forthcoming	DePaul (online)	William McNeill	wmcneill -at- depaul.edu

Basic Concepts of Phenomenology	This course emphasizes the principal themes of such thinkers as Husserl, Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger.	DePaul	Avery Goldman	agoldman -at- depaul.edu

Nietzsche’s Beyond Good & Evil	A close reading of the book Nietzsche considered the most accessible and thorough account of his views.	University of Chicago	Robert Pippin	rpippin582 -at- gmail.com

20th Century Philosophy	This class will be an exploration of some of the major philosophical themes and figures of the twentieth century. We will be reading parts of five of the most significant books written in the twentieth century, as well as several highly influential articles in the analytic tradition. While the course is intended as an introduction to twentieth-century philosophy, it is not for the faint of heart. Both analytic and continental traditions will be covered and reasons underlying the Analytic/Continental split will be explored, as well as common themes underlying both traditions. Figures to be covered are Husserl, Heidegger, the early and later Wittgenstein, Russell, Frege, and Sartre.	Purdue	Jacqueline Mariña	purduephilosophy -at- purdue.edu

Phenomenology	This seminar will survey contemporary work in phenomenology. The first third of the semester will be devoted to an examination of Edmund Husserl’s classical account. The second part will briefly examine challenges and internal developments to this account, for example, by Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. Finally, depending on areas of students’ interest, we will examine the contemporary status and applications of phenomenology,for example, in ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, or cognitive science.	Notre Dame	Stephen Watson	swatson -at- nd.edu

Hegel’s Moral & Political Thought	Forthcoming	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	William Bristow	bristow -at- uwm.edu

Fall 2022-2023

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Contact
Hegel’s Encyclopaedia Logic	This course is a part of a three quarter series entitled ‘History of Philosophy in Reverse.’	DePaul University Thursdays, 3:00-6:15pm	Kevin Thompson	Kthomp12 at depaul.edu

Kant & 19th Century Philosophy	This course focuses on a study of Kant and some of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century, such as Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. Typical questions pertain to the role of history in shaping our self-understanding in science, religion and politics; the emergence of radical critiques of modern culture; the origins, nature, and limits of human knowledge; and the power dynamics that hape our identities and intersubjective relations.	DePaul University Lincoln Park Campus Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:20AM-12:50PM	Avery Goldman	Agoldman at depaul.edu

Kant’s Moral and Political Philosophy	In this graduate seminar, we will study Immanuel Kant’s major writings on moral and political philosophy. Our historical and systematic approach to these texts will raise questions about the relationship between freedom and morality, the nature of ethical inquiry, the ethics of autonomy, the status of political obligation, the permissibility of political resistance, and institutional questions surrounding the rule of law and global justice. Readings include Kant’s Groundwork, Critique of Practical Reason, Metaphysics of Morals; his essays on practical philosophy (especially those touching on enlightenment, perpetual peace, and methodology in ethics); selections from his lectures on ethics and natural right; and the relevant secondary literature.	Purdue University Mondays 11:30am-2:20pm	Patrick Kain & J.P. Messina	Kain at purdue.edu

Phenomenology	This course offers a careful examination of central texts in phenomenology, with special attention to hermeneutics. Our main concern in this course will be to examine the insights of phenomenology in relation to questions of the constitution of consciousness, temporality, understanding, interpretation, their relation to the life project, and how they define our Being with others. As such, a central aim of the course is the examination of interpretation in relation to ethical concerns. Readings from Husserl will include chunks from Ideas and other essays, as well as the entirety of the Cartesian Meditations. Heidegger’s Being and Time, and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness will be examined in relation to both Husserl’s foundations and the issues delineated above. Comparison of the development of these issues by these three thinkers will be a fundamental goal.	Purdue University Mondays, 2:30-5:20pm	Jacqueline Mariña	Marinaj at purdue.edu

Kant’s Practical Philosophy	This course will be an in-depth study of Kant’s and Kantian practical thought. A large part of the course will be devoted to careful reading of Kant’s own key texts on moral philosophy, focusing in particular, on the Critique of Practical Reason, supplemented by selections from the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Pure Reason, The Metaphysics of Morals, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, and other works. Special attention will be paid to Kant’s conception of practical agency, his justification of morality and freedom, his account of moral self-consciousness, and moral psychology. We will then consider some important recent works in Kantian ethical theory, including papers and book chapters by Christine Korsgaard, Barbara Herman, Tamar Shapiro, Lucy Allais, and others.	University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30pm – 3:45pm	Nataliya Palatnik	Palatnik at uwm.edu

Winter 2021-2022

Topic

Course Description

Venue

Instructor

Contact

Heidegger’s Hermeneutics and the Possibility of Critique

In this course, we will examine the main features of the philosophical paradigm of hermeneutics that Heidegger articulates in Being and Time. The key to Heidegger’s paradigm shift is the generalization of hermeneutics from a method of textual interpretation to a way of understanding human identity. The hermeneutic paradigm offers a radically different understanding of what is distinctive about human beings: to be human is not primarily to be a rational animal, but first and foremost to be a self-interpreting animal. In order to assess the explanatory power of hermeneutic philosophy and its limits, our seminar will undertake three tasks. First, we will analyze Being and Time’s hermeneutic conception of human identity and its main philosophical consequences. To get a sense of the full explanatory potential of Heidegger’s hermeneutics we will then analyze Gadamer’s dialogical model of interpretation as elaborated in his Truth and Method as well as contemporary accounts that engage with the hermeneutic approach, like those of Miranda Fricker, Ronald Dworkin, Danielle Allen, and Robert Brandom. Third, we will explore the potential limits of the hermeneutic paradigm through an analysis of challenging approaches such as ideology critique and critical race theory, and the possibilities of articulating a critical hermeneutics along the lines of Habermas’s ‘democratic turn’ in critical theory.

Northwestern University

Tuesday from 2:00-4:50pm

Philosophy Seminar Room

Prof. Cristina Lafont

clafont at u.northwestern.edu

Studies in Modern Philosophy

In this seminar, we will read some of Kant’s works concerning human history and human nature. We will be concerned to understand and investigate Kant’s defense of teleological explanation in biology – organic nature should be understood as organized purposively, parts or aspects of beings as directed towards ends – as well as his various claims concerning the nature of human history. For example: does history have a purpose, and if so, which, and how could we know of it? What kind of description, knowledge, understanding is appropriate to history as an object (are there laws of history, for example)? We will also investigate the relationship among these doctrines: given Kant’s use of biological terminology in his history writings, on his view is historical investigation strongly akin to biological explanation, or based upon biological premises? Or does human freedom or rationality disrupt biology, rendering history distinct from nature? All of these doctrines intersect with Kant’s well-known racism: he develops his biological theory of race while working on his philosophy of biology, and his racist claims in that context are connected to historical views concerning human cultural and moral development. Thus, we will also investigate whether or Kant’s concept of race is a teleological-biological or historical concept (or both), and to what degree or how this concept, and Kant’s racist commitments, are integral to his thinking concerning biology and history.

Northwestern University

Prof. Rachel Zuckert

r-zuckert at northwestern.edu

Fall 2021-2022

Topic

Course Description

Venue

Instructor

Notes

Hegel’s Concept of Philosophy

In this course, we will analyze Hegel’s concept of philosophy by means of a line-by-line reading of two of Hegel’s most well-known writings: the Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. We will pay particular attention to the question of the differences between philosophy and other forms of cognition.

Northwestern University

Fridays from 12:00-2:50pm

Philosophy Seminar Room

Prof. Mark Alznauer

m-alznauer@northwestern.edu

Fall 2019-2020

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Heidegger, Being and Time	This course will offer a careful study of this seminal philosophical text of the twentieth century, one that profoundly altered the philosophical landscape and prepared the way for existentialism, deconstruction, and postmodernism. Particular attention will be paid to the radical phenomenological understanding of human existence, the overcoming of subjectivity, the undermining of the privilege of the theoretical, and the questioning of the understanding of Being as presence that has implicitly dominated the history of philosophy. Our reading of Being and Time will be supplemented by readings from lecture courses of the same period, especially The Basic Problems of Phenomenology (1927) and The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic (1928), as well as other relevant texts. The course runs over two quarters, autumn and winter.	De Paul University Thursdays from 3:00-6:15pm Philosophy Conference Room 2352 N. Clifton	Prof. William McNeill	Prof. William McNeill WMCNEILL@depaul.edu
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit	Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spiritis a philosophically rich and complex text with a rich and complex reception history. Our aim in this seminar will be to make sense of Hegel’s overall project and the different ways it has been interpreted from Marx and the British Idealists up to Robert Brandom and Slavoj Žižek. Controversial topics today include Hegel’s Eurocentrism and racism (more pronounced in his lectures on the philosophy of history), his relation to Kant, and the exact meaning of such fundamental concepts as determinate negation, self-consciousness, spirit, and absolute knowing. Although we will not be reading any of the secondary literature together, everyone is encouraged to explore alternative approaches to whatever topic you choose to write about for the seminar paper that is due at the end of the semester. Ideally, it should be the kind of paper that could be submitted to a conference or journal, so approximately 12-18 double-spaced pages.	Loyola University Chicago Mondays 4:15-6:45 pm Crown 141	Prof. Andrew Cutrofello	Prof. Andrew Cutrofello acutrof@luc.edu
Hegel and Marx on History	In this course, we will examine Hegel’s philosophy of history and Marx’s theory of history. We will study the former primarily through a careful reading of Hegel’s introduction to his lectures on the philosophy of world-history. And we will study the latter both through Marx’s own writings and through G. A. Cohen’s influential reconstruction of Marx’s theory.	Northwestern University M 3:30-6:20pm Kresge 3-438	Prof. Mark Alzanauer	Prof. Mark Alznauer m-alznauer@northwestern.edu
Studies in German Philosophy – An Introduction to German Idealism	This course will be an introduction to German Idealism with particular attention on the question of whether metaphysics is possible as a science. We will read Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, which sets the terms for this debate, then proceed to read the introductions of Fichte’s Doctrine of Science(the Wissenschaftslehre) and portions of the first part of Hegel’s Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, the Science of Logic.	Northwestern University TuTh 9:30-10:50am Kresge 2-425	Prof. Mark Alznauer	Prof. Mark Alznauer m-alznauer@northwestern.edu

Winter 2019-2020

Topic

Course Description

Venue

Instructor

Notes

Heidegger, Being and Time

This course will offer a careful study of this seminal philosophical text of the twentieth century, one that
profoundly altered the philosophical landscape and prepared the way for existentialism, deconstruction,
and postmodernism. Particular attention will be paid to the radical phenomenological understanding of
human existence, the overcoming of subjectivity, the undermining of the privilege of the theoretical,
and the questioning of the understanding of Being as presence that has implicitly dominated the history
of philosophy. Our reading of Being and Time will be supplemented by readings from lecture courses of
the same period, especially The Basic Problems of Phenomenology (1927) and The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic (1928), as well as other relevant texts. The course runs over two quarters, autumn and winter.

De Paul University

Thursdays from 3:00-6:15pm

Philosophy Conference Room

2352 N. Clifton

Prof. William McNeill

WMCNEILL@depaul.edu

Spring 2019-2020

Topic

Course Description

Venue

Instructor

Notes

Philosophy of Culture

TBA

Marquette University

Tuesdays and Thursdays

Location: TBA

Prof. Sebastian Luft

sebastian.luft@marquette.edu

Spring 2018-2019

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Contact
Studies in German Philosophy: Kant’s Philosophy of Religion	This course treats Kant’s philosophy of religion, in texts ranging from his refutation of the traditional philosophical proofs for the existence of God in the Critique of Pure Reason, his vindication of religious belief from a moral point of view in the Critique of Practical Reason, to his more extensive treatment of religious institutions and Christian religious doctrines such as grace and original sin in his Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone.	Northwestern University TBA	Co-taught by: Rachel Zuckert & Ken Seeskin	r-zuckert@ northwestern.edu
Hegel’s Science of Logic [Subjective Logic: The Doctrine of the Concept] PHL 557 – Topics in Continental Philosophy	This course examines, over two quarters, the central issues and ideas of Hegel’s Science of Logic [1812/13, 1816]. In this work, Hegel presents the fundamental categories and structures of the post-critical metaphysics that serves as the foundations of his entire philosophical system. Accordingly, we will explore the major topics of the work—being, essence, and concept—through a close reading of the text, with an underlying concern to set out and evaluate its overarching argumentative structure.	DePaul University Tuesdays, 3:00-6:15 Location: TBA	Kevin Thompson	KTHOMP12 @depaul.edu
An Introduction to Hegel’s Logic Phil 414	TBA	Northwestern University TBA	Mark Alznauer	m-alznauer@northwestern.edu
Hannah Arendt: From Kantian Aesthetics to the Practice of Political Judgment	TBA	University of Chicago TBA	Linda Zerilli	lmgzerilli@gmail.com
Kant: Critique of Pure Reason	The purpose of this course is to gain a thorough understanding of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, the foundational text of Kant’s Critical project. This work spans topics such as the nature of human cognition, the limits of reason, the conditions that make experience possible, and the status of claims about that which is beyond the limits of possible experience. We will conduct detailed analyses of key portions of this text (including the Transcendental Aesthetic, the Transcendental Deductions, the Analogies of Experience, the Antinomies, and the Appendix to the Dialectic, among others). Our reading of these portions of the Critique will be supplemented by secondary readings.	Loyola University in Chicago TBA	Naomi Fisher	nfisher1@luc.edu

Winter 2018-2019

Topic

Course Description

Venue

Instructor

Notes

Hegel’s Science of Logic

[Objective Logic: The Doctrine of Being and Essence]

PHL 516 – Hegel II

This course examines, over two quarters, the central issues and ideas of Hegel’s Science of Logic [1812/13, 1816]. In this work, Hegel presents the fundamental categories and structures of the post-critical metaphysics that serves as the foundations of his entire philosophical system. Accordingly, we will explore the major topics of the work—being, essence, and concept—through a close reading of the text, with an underlying concern to set out and evaluate its overarching argumentative structure.

DePaul

University

Tuesdays, 3:00-6:15

Location: TBA

Kevin Thompson

If you’re interested,

please

contact:

KTHOMP12

@depaul.edu

The Concept of Politics in German Philosophy: from Weber and Schmitt to Arendt and Habermas

Phil 317

TBA

Northwestern

University

TBA

Mark Alznauer

m-alznauer

@northwestern.edu

Fall 2018-2019

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Dialectic	In this course we study the greatest work of Enlightenment philosopher, Immanuel Kant, the Critique of Pure Reason, focusing on his attempts to limit the claims of reason, specifically to show that traditional, philosophical metaphysics is bound to fail because it transcends human cognitive capabilities. Specifically, we will investigate Kant’s arguments that we cannot rationally prove the existence of God or the immortality of the soul, that we cannot rationally establish the finitude (or not) of the world, the ultimate components of reality, or the reality (or not) of free will. Yet Kant is not entirely critical of these aspirations of reason: we will also discuss Kant’s suggestions concerning the positive uses of reason – despite these criticisms – in both science and morality. Our most general topic for discussion is, then, Kant’s conception of the nature of human reason: as striving beyond the fact of the matter, beyond us, beyond itself, both beneficially and problematically, and as capable of self-limitation.	Northwestern University, T/Th 11a.m.-12:20p.m.	Rachel Zuckert	syll 313-2 2018-2bm7bo7 If you’re interested, please contact: Prof. Rachel Zuckert r-zuckert@ northwestern.edu
Kant seminar on the first Critique and the problem of personal identity	This course will be devoted to exploring Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy in relation to the problem of personal identity. Specifically, we will explore how Kant thought we must conceive of personal identity if both empirical and practical judgments are to be possible. Attention will be focused on a) implications of the Transcendental Deduction for Kant’s understanding of personal identity, b) personal identity and the Analogies of Experience, c) subjective experience and the Refutation of Idealism, d) the Paralogisms, and d) sections of the Critique of Practical Reason, the Metaphysics of Morals and Kant’s Religion having to do with character and practical moral judgments. We will also be taking a look at some of the most significant contemporary interpreters of Kant shedding light on some of these problems, e.g. Henry Allison, Dieter Henrich, Patricia Kitcher, Lucy Allais, Beatrice Longuenesse, and Eric Watkins. More information on our approach can be found on my website, on which I will have posted a description of my current book project on Kant and personal identity.	Purdue University Mondays 2:30- -5:30	Jacqueline Mariña	marinaj@purdue.edu
Special Studies in the History of Philosophy Phil 429	Does art offer us a kind of truth that is radically different from scientific truth? What are art and science anyway? Martin Heidegger explores these questions in a series of fascinating texts that he wrote after Being and Time; several of them also amount to a peculiar but intriguing interpretation of Kant. Later, he wrote several essays on various German poets, trying to draw philosophical ideas out of their poetry. We will read these texts closely, and consider how plausible it is to give art the role that Heidegger attributes to it. Pre-requisites: Some exposure to Kant’s critical philosophy is recommended but not required.	UIC Stevenson Hall Thursdays (Starting from Sep 6) 3:30 – 6 p.m.	Sam Fleischacker	Syllabus: Phil429Fall2018-1894dqj Prof. Sam Fleischacker fleischert@ sbcglobal.net
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit	This course is conceived as an introductory course on the Phenomenology of Spirit. What is important for me is that you learn Hegel’s methodology and understand the singularity of this book, while also discussing the relevance of some of his analysis and criticisms of modern epistemology, different forms of violence, the limitations and potentialities of ethical life, etc. That way, by the end of our seminar, you will be prepared to continue reading Hegel on your own. We will start with a general discussion of Hegel’s conception of philosophy’s task, and we’ll then move on to read the Phenomenology, starting with its Introduction. The aim is not to read the entire book, but to concentrate on some of the figures of consciousness: the pure concept of recognition at the beginning of Self-Consciousness; the Master-Servant dialect that follows it; the analysis of ethical life at the beginning of the Spirit chapter; its collapse in and through Antigone’s tragedy; Hegel’s analysis of a totalitarian logic of terror through his reading of the French Revolution; the figures of the Beautiful Soul and Forgiveness (which we will read as central to Hegel’s theory of action); and the closing chapter on Absolute Knowledge. Some of these figures will be accompanied by discussion of 20th century authors who place Hegel’s analysis in a new light (Fanon, Butler, Söderbäck, Comay, Nuzzo, and Zambrana, to mention just a few).	DePaul University Arts and Letters 211 Mondays (Starting from Sep 10) 3:00-6:15 p.m.	María del Rosario Acosta	Prof. María del Rosario Acosta acosta.mariadelrosario@ gmail.com
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (PHIL 508)	This course provides an introduction to Hegel’s idealism. Our main text will be Hegel’s 1821 Elements of the Philosophy of Right. In that work, he offers his account of the origins and development of the modern concept or idea of right. He also defends what he takes to be the most adequate conception of the conditions and nature of human freedom. The Philosophy of Right thus offers us (i) insight into Hegel’s views on practical agency, and (ii) a unique story about how, in his view, ideas or concepts come to be. We will devote special attention to the question of how his general approach to these matters differs in fundamental ways from that of Kant.	UIC University Hall 14th Floor Mondays 1:00-3:30 P.M.	Sally Sedgewick	sedgwick@uic.edu
Hegel’s Logic and Metaphysics (Philosophy 758)	This course consists of a close study of Hegel’s Science of Logic, which is one of Hegel’s most important philosophical works. In his Logic, Hegel presents (many of) the fundamental doctrines and arguments of his influential metaphysical system. We will attend to the place of Hegel’s system within the broader historical context and we will supplement our reading of the Science of Logic with relevant secondary literature.	University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee CRT 607 T/Th 3:30 – 4:45	William Bristow	bristow@uwm.edu

Spring 2017-2018

Topic

Course Description

Venue

Instructor

Notes

German Intellectual History: The Critique of Social Power in German Philosophy, Theology, and Literature

This course offers a unique opportunity to encounter one particular strand of German Intellectual History, the critique of social and political power and strategies of resistance and subversion from philosophy, theology, and German literature. While the course is offered in English, with texts offered in translations of the German works, the German originals are considered as foil for the discussion. Among the readings are: authors from the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Benjamin, Honneth, Jaeggi, and Emcke); authors in Christian theology (Metz, postcolonial theology), and 20^th century literature (Uwe Johnson, Ingeborg Bachmann, Heiner Mueller, and Hertha Mueller). We will watch some newer German films, and we will perhaps visit the Goethe Institute Chicago.

The course aims to bring together undergrad and graduate students in theology, philosophy, and Modern Language/German who are interested in German intellectual discourses, and it is open to anyone interested in exploring some major German authors on the critique of social power.

Loyola University, Fridays 2:30-5:15

Hille Haker

This course is cross-listed as: THEO 378: Theology & Culture; THEO 447: Philosophical Theology; HONR 216: Encountering Europe

Winter 2017-2018

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason	PHIL 313	Northwestern University	Axel Mueller

Fall 2017-2018

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Critiques of Morality, Nietzsche and Williams	PHIL 362	Northwestern University, Mondays and Wednesdays 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m.	Mark Alznauer	Extra Session for Graduate Students: Wednesday 12:30-1:50 p.m.
Aesthetics and Politics	Readings include Kant, Marx, Adorno, and Benjamin. See the syllabus.	UIC, Mondays, 3:30-6:15 p.m.	Anna Kornbluh	Auditors welcome.
Kant’s Mathematical World	The first, shorter part will be an introduction and quick overview of the Critique of Pure Reason, followed by a closer look at Kant’s philosophy of mathematics and its role in his account of experience. It will upend the common understanding of Kant’s philosophy of mathematics and argue that mathematical cognition plays a far larger role in Kant’s account of experience — even everyday experience — than it is usually thought to have.	UIC, University Hall 1430, Thursdays 3:30pm — 6:00pm, beginning Thursday August 31.	Daniel Sutherland	Interested students should email sutherla@uic.edu.
Nietzsche and the Thinking of History	Nietzsche closes the preface of his essay, “On the Use and Disadvantage of History for Life,“ the second of his Untimely Meditations (1873-1876), with the following statement: “I do not know what meaning classical studies could have for our time if they were not untimely—that is to say, acting counter to our time and thereby acting on our time and, let us hope, for the benefit of a time to come.” That is, for Nietzsche, the past is to be considered always and only as our past, or as the past of the present, i.e. as the historical figures, texts, and events that have generated our own concepts, principles, and values, all of which are still determining and setting the horizon for our experience of and our thinking about our world and ourselves. Our task in taking up our history is not to arrive, then, at the objective truth of what occurred or what a given author had in mind in some now long dead historical moment. Rather, as we shall come to see, with Nietzsche we are called upon to access the past as text and read through it to its sources, to the complex play of forces that subtend the text and give rise to it. And that project, Nietzsche insists here, can be “untimely,” in that it can have a disruptive and even a destructive influence on the present. But it is precisely here that we encounter a certain tension in Nietzsche’s thinking of history and we will attend to that tension this quarter. For we will ask, how is it that the past, which delivers up the historical content that is passed down to us and determines our present, can also be the source of impulses or insights that serve to disrupt that very present? What explains this fundamentally ambivalent power of history? How can our history be both oppressive and the ultimate source of our liberation? That is the question we will be posing this quarter, investigating the various characterizations of the project, from radicalized ‘philology,’ to radicalized ‘history,’ to radicalized ‘genealogy.’ These are ‘radical’ in the sense of pushing the tasks and methods that these terms name down to their radix or ‘root, source.’ Finally, we will ask, in what sense is Nietzschean philology/history/genealogy is most of all related neither to the past nor to the present but to the future, insofar as it incorporates a certain openness and indeterminacy into the thinking it grounds and the creative comportment it hopes to encourage.	DePaul University, Wednesdays 3:00-6:15 p.m. Arts and Letters 303	Sean Kirkland

Spring 2016-2017

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Freud and Interpretation	We will engage in close readings of Freud’s works that offer a window into his method of interpretation (The Interpretation of Dreams, etc.) to see how the methods of psychoanalytic thought inform modern reading and interpretive practices.	UIC	Heidi Schlipphacke	Graduate Seminar

Winter 2016-2017

Topic

Course Description

Venue

Instructor

Notes

Walter Benjamin

Graduate Seminar on Walter Benjamin: On Critique (History, Language and Violence).

Interested participants should contact María del Rosario Acosta at: macostal@depaul.edu.

DePaul University, Mondays 3-6:15 p.m.

María del Rosario Acosta

Fall 2016-2017

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Philosophy of History	See flier here.	Northwestern University, Crowe 1-140, Thursdays 5-8 p.m.	Rachel Zuckert
The Critique of Pure Reason	Interested auditors should contact Sally Sedgwick at: sedgwick@uic.edu.	UIC, University Hall, 14th Floor seminar room, Fridays 1:10-3:40 p.m.	Sally Sedgwick
Hegel’s Philosophical Science of Right	This seminar examines the central issues and ideas of Hegel’s philosophical science of right—that is, his moral, legal, social, economic, and political philosophy—through a close reading and critical discussion of the Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1821) and related passages from the first edition of the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817). See syllabus here.	DePaul, 2352 N. Clifton, Suite 150, Room 33 (Department Conference Room), Tuesdays, 3:00-6:15	Kevin Thompson	Students from other programs are welcome to sit in or take this as an independent study

Spring 2015-2016

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Communicating the Incommunicable: Kant’s Third Critique and Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy”	A graduate seminar in German and CLS on Kant and Sterne.	Northwestern University, Room TBA	Samuel Weber
Heidegger, “The Origin of the Work of Art”	This course will offer a close examination of Heidegger’s influential 1936 essay “The Origin of the Work of Art.” We shall situate it in relation to the following texts: Being and Time (1927); the first Hölderlin lecture course, on “Germania” and “The Rhine” (1934-35); the first two versions of “The Origin of the Work of Art” (1934-35); and the essay “Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry” (1936). The focus of our reading will be the conflict or strife between “world” and “earth.”	DePaul University, Philosophy Department Seminar Room, Th 3:00-6:15pm	William McNeill	Graduate Seminar

Winter 2015-2016

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
German Aesthetics	A two quarters seminar on German Aesthetics, Kant, Schiller and Hegel, fall and winter 2015-2016.	DePaul University, Mondays 3-6 p.m.	María del Rosario Acosta	Graduate Course in Philosophy
Philosophy of History (PHIL 390)	An upper-level undergraduate course on philosophy of history, which will concentrate on the German philosophical tradition (Kant to Nietzsche). Students may contact Rachel Zuckert if they are interested in the course.	Northwestern University, Room TBA, T/Th 12:30-1:50	Rachel Zuckert
The Future of Democracy (PHIL 402-1)	In this seminar we will examine contemporary conceptions of democracy (minimal, pluralist, agonistic, deliberative, etc.) to see how each of them interprets the democratic ideal of a society of free and equal citizens, and how they propose, in consequence, to organize social and political institutions. Although the normative premises of these conceptions vary widely, all of them operate under the assumption of a relatively closed society of a single nation-state. However, under current conditions of globalization, this is no longer a plausible assumption. Indeed, unless transnational democratization is possible, the future of democracy seems seriously threatened. Thus the main challenge facing contemporary democratic theory is to figure out whether the essential components of democratic legitimacy (such as citizens’ participation in political decision making, public deliberation, etc.) can be reproduced at the global level. In the second part of the seminar, we will address this difficult question by analyzing some recent proposals for a new international order (Rawls, Habermas, Held, etc.) with a focus on the level of democratization beyond national borders that each of them considers feasible and desirable.	Northwestern University, Room TBA	Cristina Lafont	Second Year Proseminar, Open to all Graduate Students
Aesthetics: 1735 to 1935 (from Baumgarten to Benjamin to Heidegger)	The aim of this seminar is to approach two groundbreaking inquiries into the status of aesthetics that were drafted—under very different circumstances—around 1935: Walter Benjamin’s “Kunstwerk in der Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit” (The artwork in the age of its technical reproducibility) and Martin Heidegger’s “Ursprung des Kunstwerks” (Origin of the artwork). In preparation for a reading of these two contrasting attempts to re-think the tradition of aesthetics from the ground up, the seminar begins with an analysis of the first work in which the term “aesthetics” appeared, namely Alexander Baumgarten’s 1735 dissertation, Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus (generally translated, oddly enough, as “Reflections on Poetry”). After a discussion of the Leibniz-inspired context that enabled Baumgarten to conceive of “aesthetics” as a “science” that is analogous to “logic” (understood as the study of rational knowledge), the seminar will concentrate on a series of stages in the development of the German (and perhaps Danish) aesthetic tradition. The choice of texts will depend on student interest; but the possibilities include Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. In the final half of the seminar, we will attend to the aforementioned essays from 1935, while adding further texts of Benjamin and Heidegger in response to individual student interests. Among the primary questions we will be asking are these: Where does language stand in the construction and de-structuring of the concept of aesthetics? Why does the concept of aesthetics first emerge in the context of a “philosophical meditation” on poetry, when poetry is supposed to be only of the many forms of art that come under scrutiny in the new science? And to what extent does the Leibnizian origin of the term “aesthetics” reflect itself in the directions of thought proposed by Heidegger and Benjamin in their respective writings?	Northwestern University	Peter Fenves	Graduate Seminar

Fall 2015-2016

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
German Aesthetics	A two quarters seminar on German Aesthetics, Kant, Schiller and Hegel, fall and winter 2015-2016.	DePaul University, Wednesdays 3-6 p.m.	María del Rosario Acosta	Graduate Course in Philosophy
Kant’s Critique of Judgment (PHIL 414)	Students may contact Rachel Zuckert if they are interested in the course.	Northwestern University, Crowe 1-140, Fridays 1-4 p.m.	Rachel Zuckert	Graduate Seminar in Philosophy
The German Quest for God	The aim of this course is to render the students familiar with German intellectual history from the Middle Ages to the present with a specific focus on literary and philosophical texts that manifest a religious dimension. For two of the most impressive traits of German culture have been the reciprocal influences between philosophy and literature, on the one hand, and the quest for a philosophical religiosity, on the other. I have chosen two texts from the 12th and the 13th centuries respectively and then a text from each century from the sixteenth to the twenty-first in order to cover the most important changes. Some of the texts are deeply influenced by the earlier ones included in this syllabus, even if they are separated by centuries – Thomas Mann parodies Hartmann von Aue, for example.	Notre Dame University, O’Shaughnessy Hall 204A,T/Th 3:30-4:45 p.m.	Vittorio Hösle
Kant’s Critical Philosophy (Philosophy 424)	An upper-division course that will focus on the Critique of Pure Reason.	UIC, MWF 12:00-12:50	Daniel Sutherland

Winter to Spring 2014-2015

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Phenomenology/Existentialism		Marquette University	Sebastian Luft	Graduate Course
Hegel’s Begriffslogik		University of Chicago	Robert Pippin	Graduate Seminar
Nietzsche	Introduction to Nietzsche’s thought.	DePaul University	William McNeill	Graduate Seminar Winter Quarter: PHL 525, Tues. 1:00-4:10
Nietzsche	Introduction to Nietzsche’s thought.	DePaul University	William McNeill	Undegraduate Course Spring Term: T,Th. 2:40-4:10

Fall 2014-2015

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
History of Sovereignty	This course is an historical and systematic examination of the concept of modern sovereignty that takes Kant and Fichte’s political theories as historical case studies for questions about the justification and nature of this core concept of political philosophy.	DePaul University, Thursdays, 1:00-4:10, Arts & Letters 301, September 11th-November 13th	Kevin Thompson	Further Information to be found HERE
“History and Tragedy in Hegel and Nietzsche”	TBA	UIC, Tuesdays from 4 – 6:30 (14th floor, University Hall)	Sally Sedgwick
Upper-diviison undergrad course on 19th century philosophy.	TBA	Marquette University	Sebastian Luft
Undersyanding Human Rights	The normative appeal of human rights in contemporary politics is an astonishing development. In fact, over the past decades most countries in the world have ratified at least some of the core human rights conventions and treaties. However, although human rights have become the lingua franca of international political discourses on global justice, there is still a lot of disagreement on what human rights are as well as on what human rights there are. Moreover, on the wake of globalization it is becoming increasingly difficult to answer the question of who has which human rights obligations towards whom. The traditional answer that only states have human rights obligations towards their own populations is becoming less and less plausible in light of the impact that actions of global economic institutions such as the WTO or powerful private actors such as Transnational Corporations have on the ability of states to protect human rights. With these problems in view, we will examine the main philosophical approaches to human rights currently under discussion (foundationalist, functionalist, pluralist etc.) in order to assess the answers they provide to these difficult normative questions.	Northwestern University, Thursday, 3-5:50	Cristina Lafont	Readings include classic texts by Hannah Arendt, Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor and others.
Hegel’s Encyclopedia	TBA	Loyola University, Lake Shore Campus	Adriaan Peperzak
German Reading Group: Heinrich Heine’s Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland	This one-credit (pass/fail) reading course is designed to introduce students who have the equivalent of four-semesters or more of college German, that is, the equivalent of German 20202 or more, to an interesting work in German and to help them continue to develop their reading skills, knowledge of grammar, and pronunciation. The language of discussion will be English, thus opening the course to a wider range of students, undergraduate as well as graduate. The topic this fall will be Heinrich Heine’s witty and intellectually rich essay Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland (1834). An essay that helped to define what intellectual history is, the work introduces readers to interwoven currents in German history, religion, literature, and politics (the German censor excised fifteen passages from the original work). The essay explores the distinction of Germany by engaging early Germanic folk traditions; the divide between Catholicism and Protestantism inaugurated by Luther and the Reformation; philosophical movements, such as pantheism and idealism; philosophers from Spinoza to Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; and prominent literary figures, such as Lessing and Goethe. The capacity to capture complex philosophical developments in such a lively and witty way is perhaps unique in the history of letters. Further, the essay offers a window onto Heine’s own worldview and style. Heine is one of Germany’s greatest poets and essayists and arguably its greatest wit, which is one reason why in some English-speaking countries Heine ranks behind only Goethe among Germany’s greatest writers.	University of Notre Dame, O’Shaughnessy Hall 345	Mark W. Roche	Wednesdays 5:00-6:00

Spring 2013

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right	TBD	University of Ilinois at Chicago, Mondays, from 1 – 3:30, Room: TBA	Sally Sedgwick

Fall 2012

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Sex, Society, and Other Relations that do not exist	A graduate seminar in psychoanalytic political theory, covering much of Freud’s metapsychology along with some Hegel, Marx, and Lacan.	UIC, Wednesday afternoons 2-5pm, beginning the 29th of August	Anna Kornbluh	A course description can be found (scrolling down to English 507 or searching for instructor’s name) here:courses
Hegel’s Political Philosophy	The course examines the central issues of Hegel’s political philosophy through a close reading of the Elements of the Philosophy of Right and passages from the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline.	DePaul University, Tuesdays, 1:00-4:10, Location:Arts & Letters Hall (2315 N. Kenmore Ave.), Room 107	Kevin Thompson	The syllabus can be found here
Kant’s First Critique	Graduate Seminar on the Critique of Pure Reason	Loyola University, 7-9:30 p.m., in Cuneo 212. Beginning 8/27	Andrew Cutrofello acutrof@luc.edu

Fall 2011

Topic	Course Description	Venue	Instructor	Notes
Heidegger I	See more details here	DePaul University, Tuesdays 1-4:10, Clifton 140	Prof. William McNeil
Political Science 36710 & Social Thought 31760: “Leo Strauss: Historicism and the Crisis of Modern Reason”.	Beginning with the collapse of Weimar liberalism, this course examines the political andphilosophical thought of Leo Strauss as a response to the crisis of Enlightenment rationalism and its successor, radical historicism.	University of Chicago	Linda M. G. Zerilli and Nathan Tarcov

Fall 2010-2011

Topic	Course Description	Venue
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit	Click Here	DePaul University, Thurs, 1-4:10
Self-Consciousness in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason	TBA	University of Illinois, Chicago, Thursdays 12:30 – 3, seminar room on the 14th floor of University Hall
Heidegger’s Being and Time	TBA	Northwestern University, W 3-5:50, Library 5746
Gadamer’sTruth and Method	TBA	Northwestern University, TTH 12:30-1:50, Kresge 2-415
Phil 414: Philosophy of History in the German Tradition	course description	Northwestern University, Thu 4-6:50, Kresge 2-345
Kant’s Political Philosophy	TBA	Northwestern University, Tuesdays 7-10, Kresge 2-345
Kant’s Moral Philosophy	TBA	University of Illinois, Chicago