Corso di laurea magistrale in Filosofia

The seminar addresses students with interests in aesthetics, hermeneutics and critical theory (and in the theory of rationality). It aims at discussing positions of German philosophy after Gadamer and Adorno and at investigating the relevance of aesthetics for a theory of rationality that overcomes the shortcomings of a technological understanding of rationality.

The seminar aims at discussing philosophies which take art as a critical means within modern technological societies. The philosophies share the thought that art opens a way of non-technological communication and thus breaks with the hegemony of technology within society. After a systematic introduction (which relies partly on Heidegger, Adorno, Kant, and Hegel) exemplary texts of five philosophers will be interpreted in detail: Starting with Gadamer and Adorno, the seminar focusses on positions of what one could call the school of Albrecht Wellmer (Martin Seel, Christoph Menke, and Juliane Rebentisch). Students will participate by preparing papers (in small groups) which will structure the discussion of each thematic unit.

At the end of the course students will be expected to:

• be acquainted with exemplary positions of the German discussion after Gadamer and Adorno,
• be acquainted with systematic questions which are important for the critique of a technological understanding of rationality,
• be able to discuss positions in aesthetics with regard to their relevance for the theory of rationality.

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The course is structured into six units each of which comprises 6 teaching hours. The first unit exposes the questions which the seminar wants to address and offers a systematic and historical introduction into the core topics of the course in form of lectures. The following five units are each devoted to one of the positions of (a) Gadamer, (b) Adorno, (c) Martin Seel, (d) Christoph Menke, and (e) Juliane Rebentisch. These units will be prepared by the students who will be working in small groups each of which preparing one unit. The student groups’ task will be to structure the discussion with questions and comments.

The course will start on February 25, at 2 pm.

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