Continental Philosophy

This week we talk about what Heidegger has to say about science. This is a useful topic to conclude with because the theme of science straddles both the earlier and later Heidegger. In Being and Time Heidegger speaks about the nature of science as what he famously calls a ‘regional ontology' which I will mention here. In his later work, Heidegger in such essays as “The Age of the World-Picture” and “Modern Science, Metaphysics and Mathematics” Heidegger speaks about how, in contrast to the common view that technology and industry are applications of technology, science is inherently technological. In this lecture then I will explain this proposition, and I will explain what Heidegger means by ‘regional ontology,' and what Heidegger has to say about the technological determination of reality which science unleashes. In his lectures What is Called Thinking Heidegger puts forward, what he deems to a shocking and scandalous thought: ‘Science does not think.' And it is rather shocking, why on earth would scientists not be able to think? These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we look at another of Heidegger's preoccupations in his later philosophy: architecture and dwelling. While buildings, like the Greek Temple are present in Heidegger's other work from the later period, he has only one short essay – “Building Dwelling Thinking” – which directly tackles the question of architecture. This essay was originally given as a lecture at a 1951 conference in Darmstadt, which was directly responding to the post-war housing crisis after WWII. It is an enigmatic essay, no doubt, and a good example of Heidegger's late ocular prose style. But at its core there is quite a simple idea, we have forgotten how to dwell, or to live well with our abodes. We have started to think of homes as technological and instrumental rather than existential. In the following then I explain how Heidegger looks at how building has become separate form dwelling, what Heidegger means by the fourfold, and how Heidegger conceives of dwelling as spaces for living in.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I want to explore Heidegger's main points in his essay the "Question Concerning Technology." It is worth noting that while the essay is relatively short it can in parts be obscure. The essay devotes a lot of time to etymological exposition so as to unpack how or understanding of technology has changed throughout history. Heidegger's primary argument is that modern technology, not technology per se, has done two things. Firstly, it obscures or makes us forget the question of Being. Secondly, modern technology also induces in humans a metaphysical transformation. This is to say it changes what we are. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This lecture I am going to explore one of Heidegger's first major post-Being and Time engagements. I want to look at what he has to say about the nature of art, it's significance and what art can tell us about the mystery of Being. The first thing we should notice is Heidegger does do something quite radical in his treatment of art. In his essay “The Origin of the Work of Art” Heidegger connects art to truth. Usually, in the history of Philosophy, for reasons I will go into, art is deemed to be the poor relation of Philosophy, presented as an obfuscation of what is real. Not so for Heidegger, who thinks that art and truth are inseparable. To understand, why this is the case will be my task this week. I aim to outline what Heidegger has to say about art “The Origin of the Work of Art,” explain how Heidegger positions himself in relation to some key moments in the history of the philosophy of art, and explain what Heidegger means by the idea that art is a form of truthful unconcealment.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we examine the final chapters of Division Two of Being and Time. These last sections of Being and Time represent Heidegger's effort to strengthen the concept of ecstatic temporality. From sections 72-83 Heidegger talks about the difference between history and historicality, an explanation of how ordinary time is dependent on existential-ontological time and the work concludes with a brief engagement with Hegel's theory of time. In this lecture I want to focus on one element of these last sections, and that is the importance of history for Dasein.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After last week's exploration of death and demise, we get a shift in gears so to speak in sections 60-70. Here Heidegger confronts the question of temporality, the meaning of care and just what exactly is ‘anticipatory resoluteness.' All of the concepts we have studied up to this point, present-to-hand and ready-to-hand, authenticity and inauthenticity, fear and anxiety, death and demise, truth, states-of-mind, care, are all reworked here as iterations of Dasein's fundamental temporality. In overview, we can say these sections are important for two obvious reasons. Firstly, they round out the idea of authenticity implicit from the earliest pages of the work, and they do so through the idea of ‘anticipatory resoluteness,' which is important for our understanding of Dasein. Secondly, they provide a full account of the temporal structure of Dasein, which is also very important. Some readings of Being and Time, especially those that focus on ‘world' and present a pragmatic reading of the book, tend to pay little attention to Division Two and underplay the temporal analyses. This is a great shame, as in a sense they are the core of the whole book, or the point about which it turns, and in addition are highly original. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In division two of Being and Time Heidegger changes register somewhat. While Division One was focussed on average everydayness, and revolved around understanding Dasein as a practical, pragmatic being, in Division Two we see Heidegger offer an even more fundamental account of what constitutes the being of Dasein. In the opening sections of Division Two Heidegger engages two existential themes death and guilt, which will in turn reveal the importance of time. This engagement is necessary because it makes explicit the temporal horizons of Dasein and how meaningful possibilities may be projected. There is a sense that in Division 1 Heidegger concerned himself with more conventional questions of philosophy such as theory and practice, language, meaning, and the nature of subjectivity, in Division 2 we start to get a sense of how Heidegger is doing something startlingly original. So much so that that we will need to retroactively reconsider what occurred in Division One.[1] We begin where we left off in Division One, with Heidegger attending to the difference between an everyday and existential-ontological conception. The subject this time though is death.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the last lecture we discussed the different ways Dasein is ‘there' and ‘with,' and the ways states-of-minds (moods) disclose to Dasein it's available possibility. We need to understand, however, how inauthentic modes, the they-self, idle talk, help make apparent how we are ontologically. Remember, authentic and inauthentic are ways of being of Dasein, not facts about Dasein. Dasein is inseparable from the facts of its life, but not reducible to them. As such, Dasein continually project into the world it inhabits. However, certain modes become apparent which disclose the ontological structure of Dasein. This week then, I want to look at some of these modes, so I will talk about what Heidegger has to say about idle talk, fear, anxiety and care.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the things that Heidegger thinks characterises Dasein is its ‘withness.' Prior to being a subject, or a self, Dasein is always with. You will very well ask with what? Well, as we saw in a general sense last week, Dasein is always with world. As Being and Time progresses Heidegger starts to ask what else is Dasein with. One of the other things that Dasein is with, is things in the world and also others, or as he calls it mitsein (being-with). Dasein as mitsein is always with others in certain ways. This week then I want to explain how Dasein is ‘in the world' already ‘with others,' and also how being-with-others can take the form of two types of impersonal being (the ‘they'), inauthenticity and authenticity. I say both are impersonal, because they characterise Dasein, not specific subjects. Although, more on this as I progress.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I want to proceed with Heidegger's preliminary sketch of how to interpret Dasein as a being-in-the-world. Firstly, I want to explain just what Heidegger means by being-in-the-world, secondly, I want to explain what he means by world. Finally, I will turn to Heidegger's tool-analysis as one of the first core concepts of how Heidegger explains Dasein in Being and Time. If we are to understand what it is to be human, then we need to understand that there is something essential about our tool use as we navigate the world.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week we looked at some of the core elements of Husserl's phenomenological method: natural attitude, bracketing (epoché), reduction and intentionality. The last concept, intentionality, was the one I said was of the most significance for Martin Heidegger. Intentionality, Husserl's idea that all consciousness is consciousness of something, became for Heidegger an insight of the first importance. This was because Heidegger saw the ‘worldliness' of thought, consciousness, as of the utmost significance. What philosophy really needs to do, is not to focus on subjects and objects, but to make sense of the human being's place in the world, or our being-in-the-world. There is a reversal at stake here. In many ways, Heidegger's masterwork Being and Time is a 20th Century reflection on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Heidegger is interested in understanding philosophy in a practical sense rather than a purely theoretically (theoria and phronesis). Although this distinction is never clear cut, for reasons we will go into, Heidegger wants to understand what the human being is, and to do this we need to tackle that question from the perspective of human's practical everydayness. And this means we need to ask ourselves what he means by the term ‘Being.'These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To understand Husserl's phenomenological method we need to do a couple of things. Firstly we need to engage in the steps of the method themselves. Husserl saw phenomenology as something that was available to anybody; it was something anybody could do. Certainly, Husserl's technical exposition is challenging, but at its core he implores us to think for ourselves. And to think for ourselves we need to look at what is under our noses, the way things appear to consciousness. And to do this we need to think through how things appear to us, as well as what the nature of those appearances disclose. So, in this lecture I want to explain some of the core steps of Husserl's method so as to help us get a sense of what phenomenology is all about it. To this end, I explain what Husserl has to say about natural attitude, bracketing, reduction, givenness, the phenomenological attitude and what it reveals about the nature of consciousness. In addition, I explain Husserl's discovery of intentionality, one of the most important elements of phenomenology.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link: . Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link:. Find out more about me here. January and September intakes available either F/T or P/T. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Given Merleau-Ponty deemed it necessary to conclude PoP with a reflection on the nature of freedom tells us of the importance he placed on the idea. In this lecture then I want to do three specific things. Firstly, I will explain what Merleau-Ponty has to say about the experience of time. This is important because Merleau-Ponty's philosophical defence of freedom is inseparable from the question of temporality. This runs counter to conventional accounts of freedom in philosophy – free will versus determinism – In the second section, I explain how Merleau-Ponty constructs an alternative account of freedom as a form of self-awareness. In the last section I outline Merleau-Ponty's own theory of human freedom.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. You can join the course F/T or P/T in January or September. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This lecture will begin with a discussion of Merleau-Ponty's account of space. It is important to grasp what Merleau-Ponty means by space, the body is not a neutral and disinterested ‘thing' but something projecting itself into space, into situations. Once we grasp what Merleau-Ponty means by space, then we can gain a sense of how all situations operate. For example, we will be able to understand Merleau-Ponty's distinction between objective space and corporeal space. This distinction is brought into relief by a particular case study Merleau-Ponty explores i.e. Schneider. Schneider's illness provides a very instructive account as to how humans relate to embodied space. In the second part of the lecture, I will explain how Merleau-Ponty deploys the Schneider case to make explicit how an individual with brain injury came to have a restrictive subject-object relation to the world. This will in turn enable me, in the final section, to explain what Merleau-Ponty has to say about sexuality in general, erotic perception, and their significance for our understanding of embodiment. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. You can join the course F/T or P/T in January or September. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this lecture, I want to look at one famous, and very specific topic which Merleau-Ponty tackles, and that is the phantom limb. Although Merleau-Ponty tackles a number of, what were then called ‘abnormal psychologies,' his approach to the phantom limb provides us with a very acute sense of how he proceeds overall. Basically, if we can understand what he is doing with the phantom limb we can get a sense of all the other phenomena he tackles in PoP, such as sexuality, language, time, space, and what we will look to in the latter part of this lecture, habit.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. January and September intake, P/T + FT. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this lecture I would like therefore to do a couple of things. Firstly, I would like to provide some brief biographical background on Merleau-Ponty. Then, I would like to talk about Merleau-Ponty's primary philosophical method: existential phenomenology. Merleau-Ponty, in my view at least, is one of the most interesting innovators of Edmund Husserl's phenomenological method. Merleau-Ponty was, with the exception of perhaps Jean-Paul Sartre, the leading exponent of Phenomenology in France. Then, I will proceed to explain what Merleau-Ponty means by perception and conclude with Merleau-Ponty's theory of the body.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence is the most difficult, most obscure, and most fragmented of all of his philosophical proposals. It has been interpreted in a variety of ways by a variety of different philosophers and in the end, there is no real consensus on its value, interpretation or remit. Furthermore, the theory is unfinished and not fully worked out, and was likely to contribute to the non-book The Will to Power. What I am going to attempt here is a reconstruction. If eternal recurrence is to be presented as consistently as possible, I need to explain it cogently as I can, as well as tie it together to other core concepts of Nietzsche's thought. But before that, we need to try and figure out exactly what Nietzsche means by eternal recurrence. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Thus Spake Zarathustra Nietzsche says, ‘The overman is the meaning of the earth.' So, it is pretty important in Nietzsche's view. Here, I will begin by excluding some potential interpretations of what the übermensch is, in order to get a clearer sense of what Nietzsche understands by it. This will allow me to explain how the question of the übermensch relates to his concept of amor fati, and Nietzsche's optimistic fatalism. Subsequently, I will explain how the übermensch reveals the stakes of Nietzsche's concept of morality and fate. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this lecture I outline how Nietzsche conceives of the will-to-power as a metaphysical question, how the will-to-power becomes a relational theory of forces, which in turn lays the ground for Nietzsche's theory of perspectivity and the will-to-truth. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we turn our attention to Friedrich Nietzsche. In this lecture I outline what nihilism means, and then turn to Nietzsche's explanation of active and passive nihilism from his book The Will to Power. My overall claim is that understanding Nietzsche's account of nihilism is an essential prerequisite for understanding his more famous concepts i.e. slave-morality, the repudiation of Christianity, übermensch, amor fati, embodiment, the will-to-power, and becoming. Once we can grasp what he means by nihilism, only then can we grasp the totality of his work, as well as it's specific ontological and ethical commitments. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I am going to look at some key moments in the latter part of the PoS. Primarily, I am going to look at what Hegel has to say about culture and religion, moral theories, and ethical life (sittlichkeit). The latter part of the PoS is concerned with clarifying sets of social practices which count as spirit.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before we get to culture, politics, ethics and religion, there are still more steps to be carried out before we can understand ourselves as historical beings. Firstly, we need to understand how Hegel conceives of reason as a type of activity. In addition, to understand spiritual freedom (Geist) we need to comprehend what he has to say about the absolute. To this end, I will look at what Hegel says in the distinction he draws between reason and understanding. Also, I am going to explain a number of other forms of misrecognition i.e. stoicism, scepticism, unhappy consciousness, and the beautiful soul. These really are all different types of dependency, to which Hegel will proceed to provide an alternative account of freedom. Reasoning, in the end, will be the prerequisite for spiritual freedom. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's lecture examines the transition from sense-certainty and perception to 'force and understanding'. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Subsequently, I will explain Hegel's account of desire, as well as the famous master-slave dialectic.These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's lecture will begin with some historical and biographical context of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. I will proceed to explain what the text overall is trying to accomplish. Subsequently, I will turn to the opening chapters of the PoS and explain what Hegel means by sense-certainty. These lectures are brought to you by Staffordshire University's Philosophy team. Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This lecture concern's Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. I examine some of the core features of Kant's famous text - noumenal and phenomenal, conditions of possibility, time and space, intuition and concepts. Most importantly, I try to explain just why understanding Kant is indispensable for any understanding the debates which go on to form Continental Philosophy in the 20th Century.This lecture series are from one of our modules called 'Transcendence and the Body' which is a core module of our MA in Continental Philosophy. On this course we study the history and emergence of Continental Philosophy. Much of 19th Century thought can be understood as a productive debate between philosophers working in an idealist tradition - where the key questions are to do with the conditions of possibility of thought or presentation, whether these conditions are understood transcendentally or historically - and those working in a broadly materialist tradition - where the key questions concern the material basis of both mind and appearance. This thematic will be used to investigate key figures and positions within this period, whilst allowing also for the possibility that staging the debate in this way might obscure certain other problems, themes or methods. Philosophers studied will be selected from a list that includes Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Lange, Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson, Merleau-Ponty among others.Come study on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.