PHL 214: Late Modern Philosophy

A survey of major developments in philosophy between Kant and World War II. Emphasis will be on developments in Germany and France that also inspired both enthusiastic devotees and aggressive critics elsewhere. German Idealism (especially Hegel) will set the stage for later 19th-century reactions by such thinkers as Marx, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. In the early 20th century, we will look at early analytic philosophy as a clear reaction against 19th-century thought, and phenomenology (especially Heidegger) as an ambivalent continuation. Attention may also be given to other movements, such as pragmatism and existentialism.