Philosophy and the Unconscious - AFS500249E

• Title: Philosophy and the Unconscious
• Guaranteed by: International Office (21-ZO)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2021
• Semester: summer
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 4
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/2, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Is provided by: AFS500249
• Additional information: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=11466
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Daniele De Santis, Dott. Ric.

Annotation

Last update: Mgr. Imogen Davidson White (03.03.2021)

(NOTA BENE: THIS IS NOT A COURSE FOR ERASMUS STUDENTS.
IF ERASMUS STUDENTS WANT TO ATTEND IT, THEY NEED TO PRELIMINARILY CONTACT THE TEACHER, FOR ONLY A FEW SPOTS WILL BE AVAILABLE)


SPRING 2020
Charles University
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
(MA Module)

Daniele De Santis, Ph. D.



Office hours: Wednesday 14:00-15:00
Email: [e-mail]


NOTA BENE: THE ZOOM LINK TO THE LECTURES CAN BE AVAILABLE ON THE RELEVANT MOODLE PAGE: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=11466#section-0

Descriptors

Last update: Mgr. Imogen Davidson White (03.03.2021)

Philosophy and the Unconscious

 

(Thursday 15:50-17:25)

Room: 225

 

1. General Description and Aims of the Module

 

The goal of the module is to present some of the most interesting philosophical interpretations of the concept of “the unconscious” between the end of the 19^th century and the second half of the 20^th century. In particular, five different conceptions of the unconscious will be at the center of our classes: the metaphysical conception developed by E. von Hartmann towards the end of the 19^th century in his monumental book Philosophy of the Unconscious, where a unique and idiosyncratic fusion of Schopenhauer with the most recent developments of the natural sciences is attempted; we will then discuss some of the central aspects of the psychoanalytic interpretation of the unconscious by S. Freud, along with a series of other key-notions (interpretation of dreams; drive; death-instinct; ego and super-ego, Id, and so on). Herbert Marcuse and Paul Ricoeur will be used in order to show how the philosophical toolbox developed by the father of psychoanalysis can be used either to propose a radical diagnosis and criticism of our modern capitalist society (Marcuse) or to develop a symbolic conception of the mind (Ricoeur). Finally, with aid of E. Husserl, the descriptive concept of the unconscious will be addressed so as to see analogies and differences with the former views.

To what extent is the concept of the unconscious a philosophically admissible one? What is its status? What kind of subjectivity is the one that is forced to recognize it cannot have total mastery over itself and its own past? These, and others, are the kind of questions that will drive our readings.

Course completion requirements

Last update: Mgr. Imogen Davidson White (03.03.2021)

Requirements

 

Students will be evaluated based upon the following three distinct parameters:

 

(1) Participation (which includes, yet is not limited to attendance, in-class active participation)

(2) In-Class Presentation on a topic to be decided with me (info and modality will be provided in due course and discussed in class). When no presentation is scheduled, a few reading questions will be uploaded on Moodle for our in-class discussions

(3) A Final Oral Exam (dates and additional info will be provided in due course)

Literature

Last update: Mgr. Imogen Davidson White (03.03.2021)

4. Essential Bibliography

 

- Eduard von Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious (Routledge)

- Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization (Beacon Press)

- Paul Ricoeur, An Essay on Freud (Yale University Press)

- Edmund Husserl, Lectures on Passive Syntheses (Kluwer Academic)

- Sigmund Freud, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works (Hogarth Press)

         The following volumes:

 

         XI Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Leonardo and Other Works (1910)

         XV Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (Parts I and II) (1915–1916)

         XVI Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (Part III) (1916–1917)

         XVIII Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Group Psychology and Other Works (1920–       1922)

         XIX The Ego and the Id and Other Works (1923–1925)

         XXI The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents and Other Works (1927–          1931)

         XXII New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis and Other Works (1932–1936)

 

 

5. Suggested Readings

 

- F. Beiser, After Hegel. German Philosophy 1840-1900 (Princeton University Press)

- P. Giampieri-Deutsch, Psychoanalysis and Phenomenology (in D. De Santis, B. Hopkins, C. Majolino, Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy (Routledge))

- Nam-In Lee, Instinct (in D. De Santis, B. Hopkins, C. Majolino, Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy (Routledge))

Teaching methods

Last update: Mgr. Imogen Davidson White (03.03.2021)

Course Outline

 

Part 1

(Week 1-Week4)

- General Introduction

- Eduard von Hartmann and the metaphysics of the unconscious

- Introduction to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis

 

Part 2

(Week 5-Week 8)

- Discussion of some of the central concepts of Freud’s psychoanalysis: dream, symptom, drive, death-instinct, ego, super-ego, ID, consciousness, the unconscious

- Freud’s psychoanalytic critique of society

- Herbert Marcuse’s interpretation of Freud and the problem of eros

 

Part 3

(Week 9-Week 12)

- Ricoeur: the hermeneutical interpretation of psychoanalysis and the mind as a symbol-creator

- Edmund Husserl and the phenomenologico-descriptive unconscious 

 

Recapitulation

(Week 13)