Modern Philosophy (Advanded Studies)

Teacher(s)

Maesschalck Marc; Schmutz Jacob;

Language

French

Prerequisites

The course assumes a basic background in the history of philosophy, especially ancient and medieval.
Ability to read texts in French and English.

Main themes

The History of Modern Philosophy course will seek to deepen the knowledge of one or more authors or currents of the period concerned, starting from a given theme or corpus.
The course will pay particular attention to understanding the reasons why European philosophers have called themselves "modern" since the 16th century, and will question this claim to novelty both in relation to past European philosophical systems and to non-European cultures in this period of "great discoveries" and nascent globalisation.
The course will pay particular attention to the genesis of the chosen topic and, based on an updated state of research, will attempt to shed light on this topic and to advance the questions related to it.
The historical scope of the course is from the 16th to the early 19th century and may include both canonical authors and representatives of an alternative canon, focusing on traditions neglected by mainstream historiography: scholastic traditions, regional traditions, the contribution of women to modern philosophy, or problems specific to interculturality (e.g., the dialogue initiated with non-European traditions in modernity, Chinese philosophy in particular).
The systematic field will not be restrictive, since the course may focus simultaneously or alternatively on problems of theoretical philosophy or practical philosophy. Particular attention will be paid to research tools and translation issues.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	read, understand, and comment on texts from the period in question;
2	identify the historical textual sources of a specific philosophical problem and understand the intellectual relationships between authors;
3	evaluate the relevance of a historical argument for our thinking today;d’évaluer la pertinence d’un argument historique pour notre réflexion aujourd’hui ;
4	critically and reflectively question the constitution of major historical canons such as “rationalism,” “empiricism,” “Enlightenment philosophy,” “German idealism,” etc.;
5	use specific research tools for modern philosophy (dictionaries, directories, major journals);
6	be attentive to the problems posed by the translation of philosophical texts;
7	write well-structured papers with clearly defined themes, with a view to writing a master’s thesis.

Content

The 2026–2027 course will be taught by Prof. Marc Maesschalck


The course modern philosophy 2252 takes interest in two special questions characteristic of the epistemological turn of anthropology at the end of the 18^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century: one from the psychiatric hypothesis on mental development, and another from the comparativist hypothesis on the history of cultures, specifically their relation to animality and ancestrality. The heart of the matter lies in what sort of link, if any, connects these two characteristics, which comprise, on the one hand, the emergence of a psychiatric theory of drives that departs from the mechanical approach to forces that previously predominated in physicalism, and, on the other hand, a hierarchization of cultural mentalities, which privileges the acquired over the innate, in a break from physicalist observations based on the colonial encounter, and focuses on autonomy. It is in this anthropological context that appear, simultaneously, not only a first theory of the unconscious, but also a first theory of cultures, of which orientalism is an archetype. In the lead-up to the autonomization of the human and social sciences as we know them today, anthropology, psychiatry and cultural theory thus trace the first modern contours of a “civilizational hesitation,” between the affirmation of a cultural supremacism and the recognition of an unacknowledged modern will to power blocked in its fantasy of domination.

Bibliography

Auteurs privilégiés : Blumenbach, Reil, Crichton, Platner, Hoffbauer, Schiller, Schelling, Pinel, Esquirol, de Gerando, Cousin, Biran …
Eléments de bibliographie :
Altman M. C., The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2014.
Altman M.C. & Coe C., The Fractured Self in Freud and German Philosophy, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2013.
Arquiola E. & Montiel L., La médecine en révolution, Sciences et philosophie de la nature au tournant du XVIIIe et du XIXe siècle, Hermann, Paris, 2012.
Milnes Tim, “Sublime Offal: Coleridge, Hegel, Schelling, and the Remains of German Idealism”, in European Romantic Review, Vol. 35, 2024, n° 2, pp. 193-211.
Regenspurger K. et Zantwijk T. van (eds), Wissenschaftliche Anthropologie um 1800 ? Franz Steiner, Stuttgart, 2005.
Vaysse J.-M., L'inconscient des Modernes, Gallimard, Paris, 1999.
Wallace E. R. & Gach J., History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Springer US, New York, 2008.

Faculty or entity

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