Simon Critchley - Lectures / Seminars / Workshops

PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS AND POLITICS (3 credits)

Simon Critchley, Ph.D.

Description: The objective of this seminar is deceptively simple: to read shakespeare's 'hamlet'. Yet how are we to approach shakespeare's longest, densest and most philosophically self-conscious drama? In addition to reading the play together, we will look at the play in the company of a number of readers, notably Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, Freud, Lacan and Heiner Mueller. A number of problematics will be encountered: the political stakes of Hamlet, the nature of male and female sexuality in the play, the problem of nihilism, the theological background of Hamlet and the way in which it characterizes our so-called 'modernity', tragedy and the production of shame. It is hoped that our reading will add up to a kind of hamlet doctrine that might tell us something about why this play continues to fascinate us and to shape what we think of as our present.

Required Reading:

Shakespeare, William and G. R. Hibbard (Editor). Hamlet. Oxford University Press. 2008. Paperback, 416 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0199535817. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Schmitt, Carl, David Pan (Translator), Jennifer R. Rust (Translator) and Julia Reinhard Lupton (Introduction). Hamlet or Hecuba - The Intrusion of Time in the Play. Telos Press Publishing. 2009. Paperback, 174 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0914386425. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Benjamin, Walter, John Osborne (Translator) and George Steiner (Introduction). The Origin of German Tragic Drama. Verso. 1998. Paperback, 256 pages, Language English, ISBN: 1859848990. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Schelling, F.W.J., Douglas W. Stott (Editor) and David Simpson (Foreword). Philosophy of Art. Univ Of Minnesota Press. 2008. Paperback, 408 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0816616841. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Hegel, G.W.F. Aesthetics. Oxford University Press. 1998. Paperback, 640 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0198238169. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Cambridge University Press. 1999. Paperback, 204 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0521639875. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Lacan, Jacques. "Desire and Interpretation of Desire in Hamlet from Seminar VI — Desire and Its Interpretation," transl. by J. Hulbert in: Yale French Studies. Vol. 55/56, 1977, pp.11-52. (English).

Muller, Heiner. Hamletmaschine. Performing Arts Journal. 2001. Paperback, 144 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0933826451. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS AND POLITICS: Thinking the Present (3 Credits)

Simon Critchley, Ph.D.

Description: Hegel wrote that philosophy is its own time comprehended in thought. But how might we – two centuries after Hegel - try to comprehend our time in thought? How do we think the present through which we are so precipitously passing? The aim of the course will be to show how theory can bring us closer to understanding ‘where we are’. Over the course of six sessions, we will address a series of topics that will hopefully present a picture of how we might think with and against the present.

Course Objective: Beginning by thinking the study of philosophy as an examination of the archive of possibilities not for the past, but for reactivation in the present, the course examines the intersection of ethical demand and subjectivity in the political. A survey of the history of thoughts on subjectivity, ethics and the role of philosophy in society will provide both foundation and inspiration to think of how we can engage politically with and in the present.

Learning Objectives: Students will think through the roles of disappointment and nihilism in relation to the political. Topics considered will also include: infinite responsibility, non/violence, power, love, humour and resistance.

Course Schedule:

Module One:
The State and Tasks of Philosophy Today
What is philosophy, and what is its role in contemporary society?

Module Two:
Religious and political disappointment and the problem of nihilism
An introduction to the Critchley's text 'Infinitely Demanding'

Module Three:
Ethical experience and ethical subjectivity
The example of Alain Badiou
An examination of the subject and the political moment

Module Four:
Ethics, aesthetics and the problem of sublimation
In/Visibility, happiness, authenticity and subjectivity

Module Five:
Nonviolent Violence and the problem of resistance
Understanding the Invisible Committee's The Coming Insurrection
The precarious nature of modes of resistance

Required Readings:

Agamben, Giorgio and Kevin Attell (Translator). State of Exception. University Of Chicago Press. January 15, 2005, Paperback, 104 pages, Language: English, ISBN: 0226009254. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Badiou, Alain and Oliver Feltham (Translator). Being and Event. Continuum. March 1, 2006. Hardcover, 560 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0826458319. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Benjamin, Walter. "Critique of Violence." in: Selected Writings, Vol. 1 Belknap/Howard. 1999. p. 244-300. Hardcover, 528 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0674013557. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Critchley, Simon. Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance. Verso. May 28, 2007. Hardcover, 224 pages, Language English, ISBN: 1844671216. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Critchley, Simon. Very Little... Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature. Routledge. June 27, 1997. Paperback, 216 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0415128226. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

The Invisible Committee. The Coming Insurrection. Semiotext(e). 2009. Paperback, 136 pages, Language English, ISBN: 1584350806. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Levinas, Emmanuel. Totality and Infinity. Duquesne University Press. 1969. Paperback, 307 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0820702455. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Schmitt, Carl. The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. MIT. 1988. Paperback, 182 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0262691264. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Recommended Readings:

Butler, Judith. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. Verso. May 6, 2004. Hardcover, 160 pages, Language English, ISBN: 1844670058. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

The Beatitudes

Kant, Immanuel, Nicholas Walker (Editor) and James Creed Meredith (Translator). Critique of Judgment. Oxford World Classics. 2007. Paperback, 480 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0192806173. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis (Book 17). W. W. Norton & Company. 2006. Hardcover, 224 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0393062635. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Ranciere, Jacques. Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy. Univ of Minnesota Press. 1998. Paperback, Language English, ISBN: 0816628459. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Ranciere, Jacques. Politics of Aesthetics. Continuum. 2006. Paperback, 112 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0826489540. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Spinoza, Baruch. Ethics. Wordsworth. 2001. Paperback, 276 pages, Language English, ISBN: 1840221194. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Žižek, Slavoj. The Parallax View. MIT Press. 2006, Paperback, ISBN: B000J6ZSG6. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.