Advanced Studies in Metaphysics A

Teacher(s)

Depré Olivier;

Language

French

Main themes

The course will be devoted to a major theme in German idealism, and refer to a text or set of texts judged particularly good illustrations of that theme. Beyond the exegetical approach required by this type of text and its contextualisation within the systematic development of a given major work, the course will attempt to illuminate the role played by the particular theme studied in the works of various German idealist philosophers insofar as it leads to differences between their positions.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Upon completion the student will be able to : - Define major concepts employed by German idealist philosophers; - Explain various philosophical methods that differentiate one philosopher from another ; - Interpret in general terms some famously difficult passages with the help of reading hints furnished in the course.

Content

Rather than contrasting idealist philosophers, the goal of this course is to seek out their common starting point, beginning with the text of Athaeneum that often goes by the name of Systemprogramm, to understand how a new philosophical generation took off from a shared will to intervene not only in scientific culture but also in the fields of politics and religion. This generation shares with the romantics and the masters of the transcendental school the idea that a critical point was reached in the development of knowledge, political institutions and ethical expectations. The texts to be studied will allow us to analyze the repercussions of this affirmation on the transversal search for a new ontology of the commons.
In the first step, through a deep analysis of the key moments in Schelling’s writing on freedom (Philosophical Investigations Into the Essence of Human Freedom), we will see how the problem of human freedom brought Schelling to elaborate a speculative genesis of spirit, within which he would be forced to recognize a fundamental opacity, the Grund, coextensive with man and the world.
In a second step, through a reading of the Phenomenology of Spirit, we will try to grasp the way in which Hegel constructed figures of consciousness through productive work on the constitutive fractures of the subject, namely: the enunciation of sensory certitude, practical conflict stemming from the plurality con consciousnesses, and the transcendental illusions particular to religious representations.
Finally, with respect to Hölderlin, we will aim to analyze the poetic form of the idea of a free humanity, namely in his “Hymnen”, and then the poetizing inhabiting and beauty as expressions of freedom, in three poems: “Der Rhein”, “Germanien” and “In lieblicher Bläue”. In this last part, we will make an effort to keep distance from Heidegger’s interpretation of Hölderin, found in his writings and seminars on the idealist figure. 

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

Students will be asked to write a 10 page paper to be based off of a reading of one of the proposed texts. After emailing the paper, the student will receive a question on the paper to be prepared for the oral exam.
The student will have approximately 15 minutes to present this answer during the oral exam.
The paper may be written in French, English, Spanish, or German, with the professor’s agreement.

Bibliography

Les textes abordés seront les suivants :

• SCHELLING, HEGEL, HÖLDERLIN, Le plus vieux programme systématique de l’idéalisme allemand [1795-1796].
  • a) Trad. par Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe et Jean-Luc Nancy, in  L’Absolu littéraire. Théorie de la littérature du romantisme allemand. Paris, Seuil, 1978.
  • b) Trad. par Olivier Depré in Depré, Olivier, « Éclairages nouveaux sur “Le plus vieux programme de système de l'idéalisme allemand” », in Revue Philosophique de Louvain. Quatrième série, tome 88, n°77, 1990. pp. 79-98.
• SCHELLING, F. W. J., Recherches philosophiques sur l’essence de la liberté humaine et les sujets qui s’y rattachent [1809], trad. par Fr. Martineau et Courtine in Schelling, F. W. J., Oeuvres Métaphysiques. Paris, Gallimard, 1980.
• HEGEL, G. W. F., Phénoménologie de l’esprit [1807], trad. par Jean Hyppolite. Paris, Aubier, 1941 (2 tomes).
• HÖLDERLIN, J. C. F., “Hymnen”, “Der Rhein” [“Le Rhin”, trad. par Fr. Fédier], “Germanien” [“Germanie”, trad. par J. Hervier], “In lieblicher Bläue” [“En bleu adorable”, trad. par A. du Boucher; trad. par J. Hervier], in Hölderlin, J. C. F, Hölderlin. Cahiers de l’Herne. Sous la direction de Jean-François Courtine. Paris, Editions de l’Herne, 1989.

Bibliographie secondaire recommandée (sélection) :

• BALIBAR, Etienne, Citoyen Sujet et autres essais d'anthropologie philosophique, Paris, PUF, 2011. (Chap. IV De la certitude sensible à la loi du genre:Hegel, Benveniste, Derrida)
• FERRER/PEDRO, Schellings Philosophie der Freiheit. Studien zu den « Philosophischen Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit », Würzburg, 2012.
• Finkelde, D. (2015). Exzessive Subjektivität: eine Theorie tathafter Neubegründung des Ethischen nach Kant, Hegel und Lacan. Munich : Verlag Karl Alber.
• Fischbach, F. (1999). Fichte et Hegel, la reconnaissance (1. éd). Paris: P. U. F.
• GABRIEL, Markus, Transcendental Ontology. Essays in German Idealism. Londres, Continuum, 2011.
• Gourdain Sylvaine, Sortir du transcendantal, Heidegger et sa lecture de Schelling, Ousia, Bruxelles, 2018.
• HANSEN, Frank-Peter, “Das älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus”. Rezeptionsgeschichte und Interpretation. Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1989.
• HÖFFE/PIEPER (éd.), F. W. J. Schelling. Über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit, Berlin, 1995.
• L. Hühn/J. Jantzen (Hrsg.): Heideggers Schelling-Seminar (1927/28). Die Protokolle von Martin Heideggers Seminar zu Schellings ‚Freiheitsschrift’ (1927/28) und die Akten des Internationalen Schelling-Tags 2006, Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 2010.
• HYPPOLITE, Jean. Logique et Existence. Paris, PUF, 1952. (Chap.I L'ineffable)
• Labarrière Pierre-Jean, Structures et mouvement dialectique dans la "Phénoménologie de l'esprit" de Hegel, Paris, Aubier, 1992,
• LEBRUN, G. La Patience du Concept. Paris, Gallimard, 1972. (Chap. III Ce vieux mot d’athéisme)
• Maesschalck M., « L’engendrement du commencement selon Schelling : signification et enjeux d’une protologie de la conscience », in M. Vetö (dir.), Philosophie, théologie, littérature. Hommage à Xavier Tilliette, Peeters, Louvain/Paris, 2011, pp. 293-318.
• NAUEN, Franz Gabriel. Revolution, Idealism and Human Freedom: Schelling, Hölderlin and Hegel and the Crisis of Early German Idealism. The Gague, M. Hijhoff, 1971.
• ROUX Alexandra (Dir.), Schelling en 1809, une liberté pour le bien et pour le mal, Vrin, Paris, 2010.
• Ruda, F. (2013). Hegel’s rabble: an investigation into Hegel’s Philosophy of right (1. paperback ed). London: Bloomsbury.
• SandKühler H.G. (ed.), Handbuch Deutscher Idealismus, Metzler, Stuttgart/Weimar, 2005 (trad. fr. J.-Fr. Kervegan, Cerf, 2015: Manuel de l’idéalisme allemand)
• Vaysse J.-M., L'inconscient des Modernes, Gallimard, Paris, 1999.
• Žižek S., The Abyss of Freedom, Ages of the World, F.W.J. Schelling, The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1997.

Faculty or entity

EFIL