Module Outline (updated 15 Sept., 2023)
This module focuses on works of the phenomenological movement, both as a historical tradition (Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Lögstrup, etc.) and as an ongoing area of philosophical and multi-disciplinary research. The specific focus varies from year to year. In some years the focus may be a major text from the tradition (e.g., Being and Time, The Phenomenology of Perception; Being and Nothingness); in other instances the focus may be thematic (intentionality, temporality, alterity, death …), drawing on works from a variety of sources.
In Academic Year 2024-25, the module will combine an advanced introduction to the phenomenological tradition (with particular focus on Husserl’s contributions in inaugurating the movement), followed by an intensive study of the phenomenology of time and space.
The first few weeks will focus on what Husserl himself described as his “breakthrough to phenomenology.” We study the phenomenon of intentionality, consider Husserl’s case against ‘psychologism,’ and his introduction of the method of noetic-noematic analysis. In this segment of the module we will draw on selected excerpts from the writings of Brentano and Husserl.
The middle section of the module will then consist in a close study of Husserl’s Phenomenology of Internal Time-Consciousness (a work which draws heavily on Brentano and was prepared for publication by Heidegger), followed by an examination Heidegger’s account of existential temporality and existential spatiality.
The final weeks of the module will consider recent empirical work that uses phenomenological methods to shed light on disturbances (including pathological disturbances) of temporal and spatial experience.
- Module Supervisor: Wayne Martin
- Module Supervisor: Irene Mcmullin