Philosophy of Humanities
Important people
Important theories/words
Summaries/lists
Main points of the test:
➔ Class is about forms of knowledge: how to make sense of knowledge
➔ Identities, identity making.
➔ Notion of representation and solidarity, what are the certain tools and
frameworks philosophers are giving us
➔ Intersecting with Alcoff, Said, Eisenstatt of decoloniality: how do you
decolonize. How to decolonize academia, museums, and the street. How
does decolonization unfold?
➔ Culture industry, how is it created, what does it serve, how does it affect
society and the individual.
2 Essay questions of each 750/1000
You have to reference if you are consulting a website or source!!!
Use Times New Roman or Arial, font size 11, and 1.5 line spacing. Do not use pdfs;
use MS word or a comparable file format
Presentation Culture Industry Reconsidered
● Introduce writers
● Give context (for author)
● Main keywords
● Framework
● 30 minutes MAX 40
● Be creative
● Videos, open up for discussion
Lecture 1 > Introduction
Humanities and the notion of the “human being”
>>> 1800: the emergence of the idea of the human being as an object we can learn
about,
have knowledge about, study.
Episteme/Epistemic = Epistemologie of kennistheorie stelt de vraag wat kennis is.
Plato stelde in zijn Ideeënleer de echte kennis (epistèmè) – waarin de Ideeën in hun
zuiverste vorm voorkwamen – tegenover opinies
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,Several factors contribute to this social/epistemic constellation:
● Philosophy: Kant & Hegel
● Society: era of rising bourgeoisie (European middle-class), nationalisms,
colonialisms
● Institutions: print media (output & distribution of periodicals, books), public
sphere where debate could take place, the university (regarded as a space for
free thought)
Enlightenment Epistemology (=kennis theorie) and the Production of Knowledge
Enlightenment > Trust in powers of human reason to grasp, interpret and make
sense of the world
- Knowledge is not transparent, a given.
- Rather, we ask: How is knowledge possible?
- Subject-object distinction: The subject is the person or thing doing
something, and the object is having something done to it. Just remember
the sentence I love you. I is the subject of the sentence. You is the object of
the sentence and also the object of my affection
- Mind-world/mind-matter/mind-body
Kant
Religion: Kant was raised very religious, and although later in his life he did not have
any conventional religious beliefs, he was acutely aware of just how much religion
can contribute to the ability to cope with all the hardships of existence and how
useful religion could be in fostering social cohesion and community.
Kant welcomed the declining belief in Christainity of the Enlightenment, but he was
also alarmed by it: he was a pessimist about human character and believed that we
are by nature prone to corruption.
Life project of kant: Replace religious authority with the authority of reason: human
intelligence.
Important book: “Religion within the bounds of reason alone”
➔ Although historical religions had all been wrong in the content of what they
believed, they had latched onto a great need to promote ethical behaviour. :
a need that still remained
Categorical imperative: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the
same time will that it should become a universal law. = do unto others as you would
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, have them do unto you. = act so as to treat people always as ends in themselves,
never as mere means.
The categorical imperative is the voice of our own rational selves.
➢ Rationalism: knowledge employs concepts that are given in advance of
experience
(vs. empiricism = knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory
experience. Empiricism emphasizes the role of empirical evidence in the
formation of ideas, rather than innate ideas or traditions)
➢ Knowledge is universal: valid for all reasonable subjects
➢ Ethics and freedom are a matter of rationality: the laws we rationally set for
ourselves. (vs. emotions & drives)
Political: Kant stood for liberty, but only if we act in accordance with our own best
natures, and we are slaves whenever we are under the rule of our own passions or
those of others.
“A free will and a will under moral laws are one and the same”
A free government is one that does not let people do whatever they want, but rather
helps people become more reasonable: a universally valid will under which everyone
can be free.
Art: We need to have art to make us feel like one of a bigger picture instead of being
so focussed on the individual.
We need to have art often in front of us to benefit from vivid illustrations, beauty (of
nature) and memorable symbols of good behaviour > to keep ourselves in check.
Helps us to be good.
➢ Knowing subject - known object
➢ The subject constructs and structures the experience of the object
(through concepts & forms of intuition, such as schemas of space and time)
➢ Humanities present the human being as simultaneously subject and object:
So, also the object “human being” is partially constituted through the human
subject
Lorde: “Poetry is Not a Luxury”
Toward a different notion of freedom, not circumscribed by whiteness:
- White European rationality – poetry’s integration of feeling and thought
- Poetry: “the quality of the light . . .” (37)
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