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After WW2, one of the main focuses of philosophy has been how to approach the problem of catastrophe. The catastrophes of holocaust and Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked a turning point in philosophy itself. Facing the disasters of 20th century, even such general, abstract field as philosophy has felt the need to reinvent itself. Philosophical thinking had to be transformed in order to conceptualize catastrophes in an adequate way and not reduce them to mere phenomena of cruel randomness or unexplainable evil. Thinkers as Günther Anders or Hans Jonas tried immensely to make sense of the nonsense of disaster. Karl Jaspers in his The Atom Bomb and the Future of Man points out that the very concept of future became problematic in the 20th century. Jean-Pierre Dupuy then presents, in his A Short Treatise on the Metaphysics of Tsunami, one of the most recent attempts to summarize how philosophy has dealt with the idea of disaster, catastrophe and evil in the last decades. Given the present historic context, the concept of catastrophe is once again very pressing. Poslední úprava: Kettner Marek, Mgr., Ph.D. (13.09.2022)
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The course will enable students to understand the large shifts in philosophy that occurred in the 20th century because of the various historic catastrophes that occurred in the real world. Students will grasp some of the key concepts of leading 20th century philosophers that have focused on the problem of evil, such as Günther Anders, Karl Jaspers, Theodor W. Adorno or Hans Jonas. In contrast, studies of these thinkers will put new light on classical philosophical texts that have omitted the problem of catastrophe and show, what the limits of philosophy were and are. Poslední úprava: Kettner Marek, Mgr., Ph.D. (13.09.2022)
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Evaluation: The evaluation will be given based upon two criteria: 1) Active participation in the seminar 2) Final oral exam or written essay, concentrating on chosen topics discussed in advance with the teacher Poslední úprava: Kettner Marek, Mgr., Ph.D. (13.09.2022)
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Karl Jaspers, The Atom Bomb and the Future of Man, University of Chicago Press 1963. Günther Anders Hiroshima ist überall, Suhrkamp 1995. Theodor W. Adorno, Progress, in: idem, Critical Models, Columbia University Press 2005. Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History, CreateSpace Independent Publishing 2009. Hans Jonas, Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New Tasks of Ethics, Springer 2014. Jean-Pierre Dupuy, A Short Treatise on the Metaphysics of Tsunami, Michigan State University Press 2015. Miroslav Petříček, Philosophy en noir, Karolinum 2018. Per Sandin, Conceptualization of Disasters in Philosophy, in: Disasters: Core Concepts and Ethical Theories, Springer 2018. David J. Rosner (ed.), Catastrophe and Philosophy, Rowman & Littlefield 2018. Poslední úprava: Kettner Marek, Mgr., Ph.D. (13.09.2022)
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