Technology Used and Required

This unit uses an ilearn website and Echo360 lecture recordings (https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/). The website contains links to lecture notes, ilecture recordings, and other learning materials you might require for the course.

PHL254 will be delivered using a combination of lectures (live and pre-recorded) and tutorial/seminar discussion groups. Most weeks there will be live lectures that will be recorded via the ECHO360 recording system and made available via the website. On some weeks there will be pre-recorded lectures that I will upload via ECHO360 on the website. Students will be informed as to which lectures will be live and which will be pre-recorded for viewing or listening via the website. Students will therefore require access to a computer and a good internet connection in order to participate in the unit effectively.

 Lecture and Tutorial Times

There are two lectures per week:

Wednesday 10.00am-11.00am C5C 209

Friday 10.00am-11.00am W6B 336

There are two tutorial class scheduled (at present):

Wednesday 11.00am-12.00noon X5B 132

Friday 11.00am-12noon W5C 302

Weekly tutorials will begin in WEEK 3 (not week 2!) and will continue until Week 13. There will also be weekly discussion questions that students are asked to answer. 

External students will be required to participate in online tutorials where set questions will be discussed and interaction between students will be encouraged across the semester. I will also participate in these discussions from time to time, maninly in a facilitating role.

Learning and Teaching Strategy

This unit will driven by student-centred learning strategies, combining lectures with active seminar-style discussion. Learning technologies such as ilearn websites, lecture recordings, and other electronic resources will be used throughout to facilitate learning. Active participation and group learning activities will be emphasised throughout the semester. Student feedback concerning the content and delivery of the course will also be encouraged.

The unit is taught through lectures and tutorials (two lectures and one tutorial per week). Tutorials will be run as weekly workshops dealing with questions and problems arising from the weekly readings and lecture material. Students will be expected to attend the weekly lectures and to read set readings in preparation for tutorials. Active participation is required: asking questions, making comments, raising issues for discussion by the group, etc. Students are also encouraged to relate the lecture and reading material to other areas of study and to broader social, cultural and political debates. External students are required to participate in online discussions.

Information about ilearn and other resources:

Very useful information and resources for using ilearn can be found at this website:

http://www.mq.edu.au/iLearn/

The web page for this unit can also be found at the mq ilearn website:

https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/

Changes since the last offering of this unit:

Since last being offered this unit has undergone the following changes:

Revision of learning activities, outcomes, and assessment tasks;

Curriculum mapping of relationship between activities, outcomes, and graduate capabilities;

Greater emphasis given to active learning and group learning activities.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

PHL254 Freedom and Alienation will be using electronically available readings, either via e-reserve at the library or via online open access websites.

Recommended websites, articles, and video clips will also be made available via the PHL254 website. A guide to further reading/recommended bibliography will also be posted for students.

Week 1: Introduction: Freedom and Alienation (Feb 25-March 1)

The definition of freedom as autonomy. The notion of alienation. The idea of philosophy as emancipatory critique.

Suggested Reading: Charles Taylor, “Nature as Source,” Sources of the Self: The Making of the Self, pp. 356-367.

Film extract: Peter Weir, The Truman Show (1998).

Weeks 2-3: Freedom as autonomy: Kant’s philosophy of history and politics (March 4-8; March 11-15)

 Kant’s core definition of freedom as autonomy. The categorical imperative; the ‘kingdom of ends’ as transition from morality to history and politics. Kant’s philosophy of history and the idea of a rationally constituted free community. Kant’s legacy (Rawls and Habermas).

Essential Readings:

·          Immanuel Kant, “Transition From a Metaphysics of Morals to a Critique of Pure Practical Reason,” Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, pp. 49-63.

·          Immanuel Kant, “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose,” Political Writings, pp. 41-53.

Secondary Readings:

·          Christine Korsgaard, “Morality as Freedom,” Creating the Kingdom of Ends, pp. 159-185.  E-book: http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9781139174503&cid=CBO9781139174503A013

·          Jürgen Habermas, “On the Internal Relation Between Rule of Law and Democracy,” The Inclusion of the Other, pp. 253-264.

·          John Rawls, “The Law of Peoples,” Critical Inquiry, vol. 20, no. 1 (Autumn 1993): 36-68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343947?seq=1

Week 4: Hegel’s critique of Kantian morality: the Notion of “Ethicality” (March 18-22)

Hegel’s critique of Kant’s moral philosophy. The critique of the categorical imperative: tautology, abstraction, subjectivism. Ethics versus morality. The social conditions of moral autonomy.

Readings:

·       G.W.F. Hegel, “The Good and conscience” in his Philosophy of Right, § 129-140.

·       T. O’Hagan, “On Hegel’s critique of Kant’s moral and political philosophy”, in Hegel’s Critique of Kant, chap.7, p.135-160. 

N.B. Online Quiz to be done in Week 4

Week 5: Hegel’s Theory of Civil Society and the State (March 25-29)

Hegel’s model of autonomy: individual freedom as social freedom. The political determination of social freedom. Social alienation and the State. Contemporary relevance of Hegel’s critique of individualistic conceptions of autonomy.

Readings:

·       G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of Right, Introductions to Ethicality and State sections, §§. 142-157 and 257-271.

·       David Kolb, The Critique of Pure Modernity. Hegel, Heidegger, and after, p.20-37.

·       Axel Honneth, Suffering from Indeterminacy, p.52-60.

[N.B. Public holiday on Friday March 29 (Good Friday): lecture will be pre-recorded]

Week 6: The End of History? Hegel’s critical interpretation of modernity (April 1- 5)

Historical dimensions of freedom and alienation: the idea of moral progress. The idea of an “end of history”. Current debates about the “end of history”: the meaning of neoliberalism.

Readings:

·       G.W.F. Hegel, “The realisation of Spirit in history” in his Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, p.47-67, 93-97.

·       Adriaan Peperzak, Modern Freedom. Hegel’s Legal, Moral and Political Philosophy, p.575-584.

·       Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, pp.199-210.

·       Francis Fukuyama, America at the Crossroads. Democracy, Power and the Neoconservative Legacy, Yale University Press, 2006, pp. 47-65.

Weeks 7-8: Marx’s critique of Hegel: alienated labour (April 8 -12; April 29-May 3)

MID-SEMESTER BREAK (April 15-26)

N.B. Case Study due Monday, 15 April (1st week of mid-semester break)

Marx’ early critique of the Hegelian state and Hegel’s political philosophy; the relationship between philosophy and social life; freedom through labour and activity; alienation as alienated activity; losing oneself in alienated labour; the alienated society. The description and critique of modern alienation; the program of liberation; history as emancipation of alienated labour.

Essential Readings:

·          Karl Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction,” The Portable Karl Marx, pp. 115-124.

·          Karl Marx, Economico-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, in: The Portable Karl Marx, pp. 131-152.

Secondary Readings:

·          Gyorgy Márkus, “Human Essence and History,” Marxism and Anthropology, pp. 36-50.

Week 9: Marx’s critique of capitalism: prescient or prehistoric? (May 6-10)

The description and critique of modern alienation. The programme of a liberation of mankind. Contemporary debates on the relevance of Marx’ critique.

Readings:

·          Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, part 1, pp. 54-75.

·          Agnes Heller, “Labour and human needs in a society of associated producers” in Modern Interpretations of Marx, p.188-201.

·          C. Leys and L. Panitch, “The political legacy of the Manifesto”, in Socialist Register 1998.

Weeks 10-11: Nietzsche on nihilism and the death of God (May 13-17; May 20-24)

Nietzsche’s challenge to modern conceptions of freedom. Nietzsche’s diagnosis of nihilism and the (moral, social, cultural) meaning of the ‘death of God’. Philosophical and cultural responses to nihilism.

Readings:

·       Friedrich Nietzsche. The Will to Power, Book I, “European Nihilism”, New York, Vintage Books, 1968, pp. 7-19, 34-39.

·       Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, ## 357-377, trans. J. Nauckhoff, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Secondary Readings:

·       Simon Critchley, “Travels in Nihilon”, from Very Little … Almost Nothing. Death, Philosophy, Literature, London, Routledge, 1997.

Week 12: Nietzsche’s Critique of Modernity: freedom as alienation (May 27-31)

Nietzsche’s radical critique of Western society, culture, and politics. The problem with liberal and social democracy. Nietzsche as aristocratic radical or conservative revolutionary? The contemporary legacy of Nietzsche’s critique of modernity.

Readings: 

·       Friedrich Nietzsche, “A Glance at the State” in Human, All Too Human, trans. R.J. Hollingdale, Cambridge University Press, 1986.

·        Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, ## 37-43, trans. R. Polt, Hackett Publishing Company, 1997, pp. 72-78.

·       Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, ##257-263, trans. J. Norman, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 151-162.

Secondary Reading:

·       Robert B. Pippin, “Nietzsche’s Alleged Farewell: The premodern, modern, and postmodern Nietzsche,” in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

·       Stanley Rosen, “Nietzsche’s Revolution” from his The Ancients and the Moderns. Rethinking Modernity, Yale University Press, 1989.

Week 13: Reading Week (June 3)

No scheduled lectures: tutorials will be devoted to essay writing workshops.

N.B. Essay due Monday, 10 June (first week of exam period)