[A pilot version of this course took place as a summer reading/discussion
group for interested students from May 30 through August 1, 1997. For additional
bibligraphic resources, class discussion protocols, discussion notes and
handouts, and reading assignments, see < http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/postmodernism/courseov.html>.]
NEW! Notes on Lyotard's The Postmodern
Condition
For Thursday, January 22, 1998: please review the web documents on
Overview (outline, discussion notes for Tuesday - coupled with a humorous aside, courtesy of David Goza [Jenny Jones, Richard Rorty, and the End of Postmodernism...]
Comments on the Republic
Comments on the Symposium
Course description, goals and themes
By examining Plato, Nietzsche, and the modern/postmodern debate through the thematics of eros/"sex", "lies" (noble and otherwise), and ethical relativism vis-a-vis beliefs concerning human freedom, equality, and democratic society, students will gain
(a) a first-hand understanding of two of the most significant philosophical thinkers in the Western tradition,
(b) a clearer understanding of "postmodernism" as a cultural (art, architecture, literary theory) and philosophical phenomenon, and
(c) a clearer understanding of several key elements in the debate between moderns and postmoderns, especially as this debate focuses on shared hopes for greater democracy and individual freedom.Conceptual/Historical Overview
Plato is rumored to be the most anti-poetic of philosophers: yet his dialogues, including the Republic, are literate/theatrical/poetical works. Correlatively, the treatment of poetry in the Republic is far more complex than a simple banishment of the poets from the ideal/just city: the Republic closes, in fact, with the suggestion that the status of poetry is still open to debate, and it may well have a central place in the philosopher's life and the ideal city oriented toward the quest for the good.
Nietzsche is perhaps the most poetic of philosophers, and widely regarded as the intellectual father of postmodernism. As such, Nietzsche is popularly interpreted as a radical relativist, i.e., someone utterly opposed to the notion of intellectual and moral "truths," - truths which, in the Western tradition, receive some of their most robust defense in the Platonic dialogues. But alongside his severe criticism of what he takes to be a flawed Platonic idealism - Nietzsche also offers some of his highest praise to Socrates as a paradigmatic philosopher. Moreover, his Gay Science (and other works) articulates the overcoming of the 19th ct. divide between anti-poetic positivist science and the arts in a future "joyful wisdom" - one which, much like the Platonic dialogues, will conjoin the levity of the poetic with the gravity of the sciences.
Still, there is a deep debate between Plato and Nietzsche, one which on first blush, anticipates the debate between modernists (who defend as universally valid values such Enlightenment notions as rationality, the liberation of humanity through applied science and the expansion of democratic governance, fundamental human rights, etc.) and postmodernists (who use ethical relativism as a strategic wedge to undermine what they take to be "totalizing" and thereby totalitarian narrative structures of modernity - precisely in the name of liberation and greater individual autonomy). The Republic and other dialogues contain some of the Western tradition's most powerful counterarguments to the claims of ethical relativism: they thereby offer powerful challenges to the ethical relativism often assumed as an element of postmodernism. A central point of inquiry in this course will be to carefully consider the debate regarding ethical relativism, using Plato, Nietzsche, and representative postmodernist philosophers (and their modernist critics) as representative spokespersons in the debate.
"Sex" - at least as it intersects with Platonic notions of eros - is a second prominent theme in this debate. For example, Plato contrasts eros in the service of the philosophic quest for wisdom and justice, with the unmoderated eros fostered by democratic regimes which stress moneymaking as the means of fulfilling one's desires, and thereby lead to the eros of the tyrannical man, who will fulfill his desires at whatever cost to others and himself. Plato's account of this erotic decay further involves a crucial understanding of the nature of freedom, as he comments on the child of the democratic regime, that "he is led to all the kinds of lawlessness that those who are leading him call freedom." (572d-e) While Locke, Jefferson, Kant, and other key philosophers of Enlightenment democratic theory take their cue regarding freedom from Plato - postmodernists (most notably, Foucault) take eros in the bodily direction, precisely as a chief vehicle and expression of "freedom." A question: what is Nietzsche's account of freedom, eros, and their intersections? More broadly: what account, if any, can be given of eros - and, especially if postmodernist thought relies heavily on such an account, how do postmodernists square such an implicitly universal account with their explicit rejection of universal truths?
"Lies" constitute a third aspect of the course. The Republic is (in)famous for its endorsement of "the noble lie," the poetic (!) narrative or myth which must be told to the citizens to reinforce the other-regarding ethical behaviors necessary to the political unity of the ideal city, because they cannot fully understand the true nature of things on their own - an understanding which provides rational/philosophical justification for the ethos of unselfishness and the philosopher-kings' concern for the good of the whole. Nietzsche's critique of Enlightenment rationalism and democracy in fact rests in part in just such a Platonic sense of the difficulty of "truth" for the many - as well as in a Kantian understanding of how the knower's participation in the construction of knowledge means that "truth" is essentially accompanied with "veils" (i.e., precisely the contribution of the knower as an active participant in the making of knowledge). But parts of Nietzsche and postmodernism take "truth" to be relative: and if truth is only relative, both the Enlightenment democratic project and the Western tradition more generally, in their faith in truth, are simply grand lies. At the same time, however, relativism and postmodernism may well be caught up in contradictions and lies of their own - lies of a more ordinary sort. At this juncture, having had some exposure to two of the most significant philosophers of the Western tradition - we will be able to determine more carefully whether the claims about modernity and the Western tradition which underlie postmodernism square with the these traditions, and/or amount to a straw man account of the Western tradition in general and modernity in particular.
Additional Themes
[]My summer reading and discussion with students uncovered the following as additional thematic threads to be incorporated in the course, alongside the three organizing themes discussed above.]
1) Dualism and the debate between the rational and the a/irrational. Nietzsche - and consequently his postmodernist descendents - focus on a dualism ostensibly interwoven into a Western religiousity (especially Christianity) and philosophical tradition of metaphysics and epistemology (especially from Plato through Kant).
This dualism is expressed in many ways - self vs. other, reason vs. poetry, reason vs. intution, the possibility of Truth vs. epistemological and relativistic flux, etc., and, on a meta-level, modernity vs. postmodernity.
In addition, our summer reading course discovered that the intellectual theme of dualism is not only a thread running through the readings: it is at the same time an existential concern for students - especially as they wrestle with the question of balance between the rational and the intuitive.
Approach: we will approach this theme primarily through an explicit focus on the relevant texts in our reading list.
For web pages which help readers explore dualism in an introductory way, see especially
<http://www.drury.edu/phil-relg/modernity/dlogic.html> and <http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/reason/reason1.html>)
2) Traditional, structualist, and poststructuralist/postmodernist theories of language. Again, Nietzsche's critique of the Western tradition includes a critique of what he takes to be a traditional understanding of language, in which meaning is initially grounded in the act of refering to concrete items. This referential theory of meaning is further criticized in both structuralist and poststructuralist/postmodernist theories of language: indeed, some see postmodernism as turning primarily on a poststructuralist critique of structuralist and traditional theories of language.
Plato, for his part, was fairly explicit regarding his conceptions of language and writing vis-a-vis the philosophical project (in the Phaedrus, first of all). The theme of language thus ties to the poststructuralist/postmodernist critique of the tradition - and to the figures of Nietzsche and Plato. At the same time, beginning with Plato's account of language and writing in the Phaedrus, philosophical accounts of language tie directly into our assumptions regarding what medium is best suited to expressing important philosophical insights - e.g., oral tradition, literacy and print, or the "secondary orality" of electronic culture, as embodied precisely in the hypertextual documents of the World-Wide-Web.
Approach: I will add some readings which introduce students to these theories of language, including their connection to modes of communication (orality, literacy and print, and secondary orality) as thought to be connected to communications technologies. A primary source for these readings will be James W. Chesebro and Dale A. Bertelsen, analyzing media: communication technologies as symbolic and cognitive systems (New York: Guilford Press, 1996).
3) Capitalism and postmodernism. Postmodernism has been critiqued by figures such as Fredric Jameson and others who, taking a cultural materialism perspective, see "postmodernism" as less of a revolutionary change in cultural assumptions and practices and more of an expression of late capitalism.
Approach: I will add two readings which express these critiques:
Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: Basil
Blackwell, 1989.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism: or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991.
(See notes on Harvey and Jameson in "Resources on Postmodernism and the Habermas/Foucault Debate," part of the course web site, located at <http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/postmodernism/resources.html>.)
4) Feminism and postmodernism. The relationship between feminist and postmodernist critiques of the Western tradition is somewhat complex: some feminists find postmodernism conducive to feminist interests in furthering women's equality and opportunities: others see postmodernism - especially in its relativistic turn - to undermine those interests.
Approach: we will pursue these questions primarily by way of adding to our reading:
Jane Flax, Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and
Postmodernism in the Contemporary West. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1990. (See notes on Flax in "Resources on Postmodernism and the Habermas/Foucault Debate," part of the summer reading/discussion course web site.)
Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructualist Theory, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1997), esp. ch. 7, "Feminism and Postmodernism."
Pedagogical Resources and Strategies
Resources
The course will rely first of all on primary texts, so as to help students develop and enhance their skills of reading and interpreting difficult literary/philosophical texts. In particular, both Plato and Nietzsche seem to require especially sophisticated approaches to reading and interpretation, which we will discuss and test in some detail.
I also hope to bring in here an important theme of the modern/postmodern debate - namely, the contrasts claimed for consciousness, conceptions of truth, etc., as shaped in literate/print-based culture (modernity) and as shaped by the "secondary orality" of electronic culture (postmodern cyberspace). Accordingly, I will also make extensive use of Web-based hypertexts (see examples listed below under Secondary Resources).
[As noted, I have already constructed and used web-based materials for the summer reading/discussion group: the orientation to these documents is located at <http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/postmodernism/courseov.html>. In the final discussion/evaluation of the course (<http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/postmodernism/8_1_97.html>), students agreed that these materials were useful in a variety of ways.]
Because the modern/postmodern debate is of interest to a wide range of faculty and students on our campus, I would also like to invite faculty from other departments - specfically including Art, Architecture, and Languages and Literature - to offer their views on specific topics as we progress through the semester.
[This was accomplished in the summer reading/discussion course through the contribution of an architecture students - whose outline is included on the website. Again, students found this to be extremely useful, and even suggested additional faculty to bring into the course (e.g., Dr. Bruce Callen). I will do so.]
[Strategies
For the past few years I have experimented with a "spiral" structure to my courses, as an alternative to a more linear form of organization. From my perspective, such an approach is more effective as it brings us back to explore ideas, concepts, approaches, etc., more than once, so as to reiterate and expand on important elements of the course.
In the summer reading/discussion group, this approach was suggested by several of the students - i.e., begin with postmodernism, including some secondary introductions; turn to Nietzsche and Plato; and then return to postmodernism. This allows students to grapple more than once with the especially challenging texts and concepts of postmodernism.
At the same time, this approach is actually a variant of Socrates' rhetorical strategy in several dialogues. In addition to its pedagogical effectiveness - to use this approach thus ties us not only to postmodernist challenges to modernist, "linear" modes of thought and presentation - but also with Socratic rhetoric. The form or organization of the course thus directly reflects and takes up the debate between postmodernists and the Western figures they critique.]
Student learning will be assessed primarily through seminar presentations on particular themes and texts of interest, as well as through extensive formal and informal writing assignments. Interested students will also be encouraged to develop electronic presentations - e.g., using Web-based hypertexts and multi-media.
[We had one afternoon to explore using the Web: while very limited exposure, students were excited about this aspect of the course. I now have a draft handout for helping orient students to building their own web documents, and will incorporate this as an explicit part of the course.
In addition, we experimented with a Web-based conferencing software, Motet, which has been used successfully in other contexts. Again, students were quite positive about this use of available technology to enhance class learning and discussion. Accordingly, a Motet conference "room" will be incorporated into the course. A description of Motet and discussion of its use in a Drury class are linked from the homepage of Religions of the World: Eastern (Fall, 1997).]
Finally, students will be encouraged to develop a research project, in which they examine some aspect of these philosophical positions and debates in greater detail, perhaps through examining additional arguments presented in texts beyond the primary class reading.
[Students suggested, for example, an examination of popular culture as a possible research topic. As well, they indicated the need for more time to explore postmodernism especially. I anticipate that some students will develop specific questions about postmodernism thought in particular which will serve as research questions.]
Bibliography/Resources:
("*" indicates reserve desk, Olin Library)
Primary texts:
* Derrida, Jacques. Différance.
* _____. Selections from Natoli and Hutcheon, A Postmodern Reader
PN 98 .P67 P697 1993
* Foucault. Selections from Natoli and Hutcheon, A Postmodern Reader
* Habermas. Selected essays on Derrida and Foucault, from The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987..
Lyotard. The PostModern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.
Secondary resources
* Jonathan Arac, ed. After Foucault: Humanistic Knowledge, Postmodern Challenges. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988. B2430.F724 A64 1988
* Andrew Benjamin, ed. Judging Lyotard. New York: Routledge, 1992. See especially the essays by Emilia Steuerman and David Ingram. B2430.L964 J83 1992
* Charles Jencks. "Late Modernism and Post Modernism," and "Irrational Rationalism," from The New Moderns.
* Richard Kearney and Marc Rainwater. The Continental Philosophy Reader. New York: Routledge, 1996. See especially Part III, which includes selections from Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Foucault, Barthes, Kristeva, Deleuze, Irigaray, Lyotard, and Derrida.
* David Kolb. Postmodern Sophistications. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
* Thomas McCarthy, David Hoy. Critical Theory. Cambridge, Mass., USA : B. Blackwell, 1994. B 809.3 .H68 1994
Alec McHoul and Wendy Grace. A Foucault Primer: Discourse, power and the subject. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 1993.
* Allan Megill. Prophets of Extremity: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida.
* Natoli, Joseph and Linda Hutcheon. A Postmodern Reader. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.
* Norris, Christopher. Derrida. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.
* _____. What's Wrong with Postmodernism: Critical Theory and the Ends of Philosophy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
* John Sallis, ed. Deconstruction and Philosophy: the Texts of Jacques Derrida. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Gary Shapiro. Nietzschean Narratives. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Leo Strauss. "Introduction," Persecution and the Art of Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Communication theory, hypertext, etc.
James W. Chesebro and Dale A. Bertelsen, analyzing media: communication technologies as symbolic and cognitive systems (New York: Guilford Press, 1996).
Diana Greco. Cyborg: Engineering the Body Electric. Watertown, MA: Eastgate Systems. (Storyspace documents).
David Kolb. Socrates in the Labyrinth. Watertown, MA: Eastgate Systems. (Storyspace documents).
George P. Landow, ed. Hyper/Text/Theory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
______, ed. Writing at the Edge: Student Webs from Brown University Watertown, MA: Eastgate Systems. (Storyspace documents).
[Additional examples of hypertexts:
A Father and Two Sons: An American Bible Society Multimedia CD-ROM for Windows
David Anderson, Robert Cavalier, and Preston K. Covey. a right to die? the Dax Cowart case. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Robert Cavalier, Preston Covey, Elizabeth A. Style, Andrew Thompson. The Issue of Abortion in America. New York: Routledge, 1998.
The Evolution of the English Bible. University of Michigan Press
Perseus 2.0: Interactive Sources and Studies on Ancient Greece. (Includes the complete works of Plato in English and Greek, as well as an extensive database of cultural and historical resources.)
See also their web site: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Web-based materials
See initial web site for links to additional resources, including the Motet conferencing software. A description of Motet and discussion of its use in a Drury class are linked from the homepage of Religions of the World: Eastern (Fall, 1997).The Habermas/Foucault Debate:
* d'Entrèves, Maurizio Passerin, and Seyla Benhabib. Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity: Critical Essays on The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997.
* Ess, "Enlightenment, Democracy, and Communicative Ethics: an Introduction to the Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas"
* Kelly, Michael. Critique and Power: Recasting the Foucault/Habermas Debate. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.
* Jana Sawicki, "Foucault and Feminism: A Critical Reappraisal," (in Kelly)
Capitalism and postmodernism.
* Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1989.
* Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism: or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991.
((See notes on Harvey and Jameson in "Resources on Postmodernism and the Habermas/Foucault Debate," located at < http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/postmodernism/resources.html>.)
Feminism and postmodernism.
* Jane Flax, Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis,
Feminism, and Postmodernism in the Contemporary West. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 1990.
(See notes on Flax in "Resources on Postmodernism and the Habermas/Foucault
Debate," part of the summer course web site, located at < http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/postmodernism/resources.html>.)
Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructualist Theory, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1997), esp. ch. 7, "Feminism and Postmodernism."
Alternatives to the (false?) modern/postmodern dilemma
* Benhabib, Seyla. Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism Contemporary Ethics. New York: Routledge, 1992
* Bernstein, Richard J. The New Constellation: the Ethical-Political Horizons of Modernity/Postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.
Cutrofello, Andrew. Discipline and Critique: Kant, Poststructuralism, and the Problem of Resistance. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994.
* David Ray Griffin et al, eds. Founders of Constructive Postmodern Philosophy:Peirce, James, Bergson, Whitehead, and Hartshorne.