What does it mean to acquire knowledge in the arts, in philosophy and in sciences? To find answers to this question, we firstly will read and discuss a ground-breaking work of Edmund Husserl on The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. A text, in which Husserl claims that scientific knowledge is grounded in the lifeworld, we are sharing. Since phenomenology is the analysis of the basic structures of the lifeworld (we are bodily embedded in), for him it is the basic foundation of all Sciences.

In a second step we will analyze the intercultural and political implications of Husserl’s image of thought by comparing his thesis with Foucault’s claim that in the Greco-Roman culture philosophy was an Aesthetics of Existence, an art to govern oneself and with Derrida's concept of "The University without Condition". This finally allows us to introduce, in a third step, an intercultural perspective. Because, in ancient Indian philosophy, philosophy has always been considered to be a form of life. In order to proof this claim, we finally will read and analyze the second chapter of Patañjali’s Yoga-Sutra (400 CE), in which he introduces the eight-fold path of Yoga, which is considered to be an art, a philosophy and a science to practice a cross-disciplinary form of life. (Last year the CDS-class asked me to do some body-practices. I will therefore introduce some simple exercises in the reading class to increase our sensible and bodily awareness).

Certificates are acquired through regularly attending the course and participating in class discussions (50% of grade). The students can choose to write either an essay during the semester (6 pages) on a significant aspect, we were discussing in the class, or to attend a written examination at the end of the semester on relevant issues discussed during the semester course (50% of grade).

 

0 - 50 % = 5 51 - 65 % = 4 66 - 77 % = 3 78 - 89 % = 2 90 - 100% = 1

 

Students from other faculties or universities will be given a place on the course subject to room capacities.

Reading List (obligatory):

Böhler, Arno: Philosophy As Artistic Research, JAR (Journal for Artistic Research (2019).

Derrida, Jacques: "The University without Condition", in: Without Alibi (Standfort University Press 2002).

Husserl, Edmund: The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy (Northwestern University Press, 1970) .

Patañjali: Yoga-Sutra, trans. by Edwin F. Bryant (North Point Press 2009).

Further recommendations literature (not obligatory):

Nietzsche, Friedrich: The Genealogy of Morals, trans. By Walter Kaufmann (Vintage 1989).

Deleuze, Gilles: Spinoza, Practical Philosophy (City Light Publishers 2001).

Eden, Tania: Lebenswelt und Sprache. Eine Studie zu Husserl, Quine und Wittgenstein (Wilhelm Fink 1999).

Manning, Erin: Politics of Touch: Sense, Movement, Sovereignty (University of Minnesota Press 2007).

Butler, Judith: Bodies that Matter (Routledge 2011).

Brian Massumi: Politics of Affect (Polity Press, 2015).

Brian Massumi: 99 Theses on the Revaluation of Value: A Postcapitalist Manifesto (University of Minnesota Press, 2018) .

 

Reading list (sections to discuss) for each meeting:

meeting: 11. March, 10:15–12:45

Introduction, Husserl, Derrida, Foucault, Manning (SenseLab), Patañjali,

meeting: 18. March, 10:15–12:45

Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences (pp.3-18)

meeting: 25. March, 10:15–12:45

Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences (pp.21-37)

meeting: 1. April, 10:15–12:45

Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences (pp.37-59)

meeting: 8. April, 10:15–12:45

Derrida, The University without Condition, (pp. 202-219)

meeting: 29. April, 10:15–12:45

Derrida, The University without Condition, (pp. 220-237)

meeting: 06. Mai, 10:15–12:45

Erin Manning, SenseLab (http://erinmovement.com/about-senselab ) Angewandte Festival Openings

meeting: 13. Mai, 10:15–12:45

Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra Chapter 2 klesha concept

meeting: 20. Mai, 10:15–12:45

Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra Chapter 2 astanga concept

meeting: 27. Mai, 10:15–12:45

Angewandte Festival „Openings“

meeting: 03. Juni, 10:15–12:45

Written Examination. Feedback round.