Fortgeschrittenenseminar What is Metaphysics Blockseminar an der VIU

Erstes Treffen Obligatory preparatory meeting: Tuesday, May 3rd, 18 - 20.30 c.t. (Room HGB (= Main Building) M 207) Seminartermin Monday, September 19th - Saturday, September 24th 2016 (VIU, Venice-San Servolo) Since the Kantian -revolution of the mode of thought (Revolution der Denkungsart)” it is quite common to think of metaphysics as going through hard times. In the last few decades, however, a revived interest in metaphysics has emerged. New and pretty different lines of philosophical reasoning are now candidates for the title of ‘metaphysical philosophy’. Given this situation it seems to be highly reasonable to turn back to classical philosophical texts that explicitly deal with the question ‘What is metaphysics?’. The central idea of our seminar is to reinterpret these texts against the background of current philosophy. The aim of our discussion is to develop a notion of metaphysics that on the one hand encompasses and integrates different philosophical approaches and, on the other hand, receives its unity from a very specific question, which has been an ongoing motif throughout the long tradition of metaphysics: The search for a big difference (like the one between something that is/exists and being as such; being and ought; finitude and infinity etc.). This motif, however, has all along been a reason for rejecting metaphysical philosophy thus conceived: For it seems to negate the finite subject in favour of something that transcends it. So metaphysics was suspected to be essentially inhumane. Our seminar shall try to answer that worry by looking closer to the act of transcending itself: Metaphysics is not brushing the finite subject aside by means of transcending, but an act of transcending that is essentially rooted in the finite subject. It is something beyond the human perspective, but still for the human perspective. Prof. Omri Boehm (NSSR New York) will contribute as a guest lecturer. A. Target Texts • Aristotle, Metaphysics: Books 4 and 12 [Metaphysik: Bücher 4 und 12] (selected passages) • Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy [Meditationen über die Erste Philosophie] (selected passages) • Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft [Critique of Pure Reason] (1781/1787) (selected passages) • Kant, Preisschrift [Prize Essay on the Progress in Metaphysics] (1793) (selected passages) • Schopenhauer, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: Ergänzungen zum 1. Buch, Kapitel 17: Über das metaphysische Bedürfnis des Menschen [The World as Will and Representation: Additions to Book 1, Chapter 17: The Human Need for Metaphysics] • Heidegger, Was ist Metaphysik? (= Antrittsvorlesung 1929) [What is Metaphysics? (= 1929 inaugural lecture)] • Adorno, Negative Dialektik: Meditationen zur Metaphysik [Negative Dialectics: Meditations on Metaphysics] B. Additional Texts B.1 Aristotle • Jonathan Barnes: -Metaphysics”, in: Jonathan Barnes (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle. Cambridge 1995, 66-108 • Peter Adamson: Art. -The Theology of Aristotle”, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008/2012 B.2 Descartes • Omri Boehm: -Freedom and the Cogito”, forthcoming in: British Journal for the History of Philosophy B.3 Kant • Axel Hutter: -Kant and the Project of the Metaphysics of Enlightenment”, in: GFPJ (New School University, NY), 36:1 (2015), 59-74 • Eckart Förster: The Twenty-Five Years of Philosophy. Harvard 2012 • Adrian Moore: Noble in Reason, Infinite in Faculty: Themes and Variations in Kant’s Moral and Religious Philosophy. London 2003 B.4 Schopenhauer • Robert Wicks: Art. -Arthur Schopenhauer-, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2003/2011 B.5 Heidegger • Michael Inwood: Heidegger. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford 1997 B.6 Adorno • Christian Skirke: -Metaphysical Experience and Constitutive Error in Adorno’s ‘Meditations on Metaphysics’”, in: Inquiry 55:3 (2012), 307-328 Bemerkung Financial Conditions: There is no registration fee, but you are responsible for the costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence in Venice. We are glad to announce that we received some funding by the faculty: 250 € (accommodation) and 100 € (travelling) for each participant who is matriculated at LMU Munich. Detailed information will be provided after acceptance. We shall update this LSF-page as soon as there is any new information. If you are interested in the course, please check it regularly! Voraussetzungen Participants are expected to have prepared all target texts properly by beginning of the seminar. The additional texts might help students to get a first grip on the target texts. The texts will be made available to the participants after acceptance. There will be a preparatory Tutorium (see below) which all participating students are expected to attend. Detailed information will be provided at the obligatory preparatory meeting on May 3rd. Leistungsnachweis The seminar will consist of a decent discussion of the texts. A systematic introduction will be given to raise the central question of the seminar. Short presentations given by the participants shall introduce each session. Detailed information will be provided at the obligatory preparatory meeting on May 3rd. Credit Points (9 CP/ECTS) can be acquired by giving a presentation and handing in an extended written version of it later or by a final paper (Hausarbeit). Detailed information will be provided in due course. Anmeldung The seminar (= Blockseminar, equivalent to a three-hours/week graduate seminar) is open to students from semester 5 onwards, especially for MA-students who intend to focus on the field of metaphysics and its critique. Of course, also doctoral students are warmly welcome to apply. The overall number of participants is limited to 25. You have to apply by email (thomas.oehl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de), attaching both a short cv and a letter of motivation that should contain your philosophical background and show why you are interested in attending this seminar. The deadline for application will be the 1st of April. If possible, you will be told the decision by April the 10th, at the latest on April the 30th. If you are accepted, you will receive further information by email then (e.g. concerning travelling and housing). Zu dieser Veranstaltung gehört folgende Übung Nr. Bezeichnung SWS 10160 Tutorium zur Vorbereitung des VIU-Blockseminars What is Metaphysics? (Prof. Dr. Axel Hutter) Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft Participants are expected to have prepared all target texts properly by beginning of the seminar. The additional texts might help students to get a first grip on the target texts. The texts will be made available to the participants after acceptance. There will be a preparatory Tutorium (see below) which all participating students are expected to attend. Detailed information will be provided at the obligatory preparatory meeting on May 3rd. The seminar will consist of a decent discussion of the texts. A systematic introduction will be given to raise the central question of the seminar. Short presentations given by the participants shall introduce each session. Detailed information will be provided at the obligatory preparatory meeting on May 3rd. Credit Points (9 CP/ECTS) can be acquired by giving a presentation and handing in an extended written version of it later or by a final paper (Hausarbeit). Detailed information will be provided in due course. LMU München SoSe 2016 Univ.Prof.Dr. Hutter Axel