Key facts

Details for course being taught in current academic year
Level 2  -  18 credits  -  spring and summer terms

E-learning links

Study Direct: V5004 (09/10)

Resources

Timetable Link
Course Document/reading list

Course description

Course outline

Over 50 years ago, Merleau-Ponty began his great work The Phenomenology of Perception with the words: “what is phenomenology’” It may seem strange that this question has still to be asked half a century after the first works of Husserl appeared. The aim of this course is to continue to ask that question about the nature of what has become one of the most important philosophical movements in the last hundred years, and it does so by examining some of the key texts of the philosophers most influenced by, and most critical of, the founder of that movement, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938): these philosophers include Heidegger (1889-1976), Sartre (1905-1980), Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), Levinas (1906-1995), and Derrida (1930-2004), and they cannot be properly understood unless their relationship to Husserl’s philosophy is examined.

Overall, phenomenology attempts to focus on “how” things appear to us rather than simply asking “what” these things are. Themes to be discussed include the nature of perception, the role of the sciences, the impact of emotions, the body and intersubjectivity.

A reader with photocopies of the most important texts for this course can be purchased in the first session.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, a successful student should be able to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of some of the dominant thinkers in the phenomenological tradition
2. demonstrate an understanding of some of the dominant debates in the phenomenological tradition.
3. compare and contrast texts and arguments from the analytical and continental traditions
4. develop and defend their own views on the core topics;

Assessments

View old exam papers

Resit mode of assessment

Timing

Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.

Weighting

Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.

Teaching methods

How to read the week pattern

The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.

Contact details

Dr Tanja Staehler

Assess convenor, Convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/philosophy/profile159294.html