Philosophy of History A

Teacher(s)

Maesschalck Marc;

Language

French
> English-friendly

Prerequisites

Basic instruction in the history of philosophy.

Main themes

The course will attempt to lay out the origin of the concept of a " philosophy of history " by distinguishing it from epistemological questions about the foundations of historical science. The course will present a historical overview of the evolution of the concept of a philosophy of history. Next, the course will present some observations on differing interpretations of the concept in order to point out the conflicts that set these interpretations against each other. On this basis, a more specific debate shall be studied in order to provide an example of the general presentation.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Upon successful completion of the course, the student should : - Be able to identify the major schools of thought in the philosophy of history ; - Know the fundamental concepts associated with those schools of thought ; - Be able to explain briefly the conflicts of interpretation that have resulted within contemporary thought.

Content

Philosophy of history. Between epistemology and ontology
The philosophy of history, at least since it received its recognition as a disciplinary field in its own right with Schelling and Hegel, has clearly distinguished itself from a theory of knowledge applied to historical science. The twentieth century has maintained this separation by exploring above all its anthropological valence through fundamental notions such as historicity and historiality, but also through the rich network of oblivion and memory, as well as of beginning and end. The aim of this year's course will be to confront two new orientations in the theory of history, that of François Hartog's 'regimes of historicity' and that of Rosa Hartmut's 'acceleration'. We will try to understand what inflection of Western thought is at stake in this revival of the theme of history in approaches that claim to be different from philosophy.

Evaluation methods

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.

Other information

English-friendly course: course taught in French but offering facilities in English.

Bibliography

Bibliographie

Agamben, G., La communauté qui vient: théorie de la singularité quelconque, Seuil, Paris, 2014.
Benjamin Andrew, Towards a Relational Ontology: Philosophy’s Other Possibility, State University of New York Press, 2015.
Hartog François, Régimes d'historicité. Présentisme et expériences du temps, Seuil, Paris, 2003.
Kühn Rolf, Anfang und Vergessen: phänomenologische Lektüre des deutschen Idealismus; Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 2004.
Lamprecht Karl, „Was ist Kulturgeschichte? Beitrag zu einer empirischen Historik, in Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Bd. 1, Neue Folge, 1897, pp. 75-150.
Rosa Hartmut, Accélération, Une critique sociale du temps, La Découverte, Paris, 2010.

Faculty or entity

EFIL