Dr. Tauber retired from Boston University in May, 2011.<\/p>\n
As a central tenet of his philosophical project, Heidegger first appropriated and then extended Nietzsche\u2019s diagnosis of European nihilism for his own purposes. \u00a0Following a review of the 19th-century history of nihilism and Nietzsche\u2019s key writings on this theme, we will closely read Heidegger\u2019s lectures on Nietzsche (concerning Will to Power, art, technology and nihilism). \u00a0Heidegger\u2019s pre-occupation with Nietzsche (1936-40) was centered on the attempt to terminate metaphysics, which he himself referred to as a \u201cturn\u201d in his philosophy and the revision of \u201chumanism\u201d of his later thought. To what extent a shift in Heidegger\u2019s philosophy occurred or not is not our concern, but rather we endeavor to 1) study the character of his philosophical thought through the prism of nihilism, and 2) trace the development of that response in a philosophy that would stretch the limits of language. In this regard, we will consider how Heidegger\u2019s theological origins mutated into his philosophical constructions and thereby explore the resonances between his focus on Being and post-metaphysical religious constructions.<\/p>\n
The limits of language reflect the limits of conscious thought, at least as defined in the analytic philosophical tradition. Beyond the constraints on expressing the experience of the sublime, passion, art, poetry, and music, 20th-century philosophers have probed how language fails to capture Being (Heidegger), ‘presence’ (Derrida), ‘the trace’ (Levinas) or even our own inner mental states (Freud).\u00a0\u00a0The discussion often takes the form of “the end of philosophy” or at least “the end of metaphysics” and has dominated current discourse well beyond the narrow concerns of contemporary philosophers. We will examine the basis for this orientation with key readings from this literature.<\/p>\n
\u201cReason and its Discontents\u201d plays on the title of Freud\u2019s pivotal book, Civilization and its Discontents <\/em>(1930), in which the relationship of reason and the passions was poised as the crucial question concerning the future of humankind. Indeed, since the Enlightenment,\u00a0how<\/em>we think, and more specifically, the character and nature of rationality, has been central to philosophical discourse.\u00a0 In this seminar we are concerned with how\u00a0reason<\/em> has been placed in contrast with the \u2018passions\u2019 as posed by the famous\u00a0 confrontation between Hume and Kant. The seminar will outline the contrasting Humean-Kantian conceptions of agency (moral and epistemological) based on the rational-emotive axis, and then extend that debate to the formulations offered by Nietzsche and Freud.<\/p>\n Given the centrality of human progress in Western social metaphysics, a consideration of utopianism offers insight into personal and political aspirations and moral tendencies of the Atlantic community. Two competing philosophical notions of personal identity \u2013 socialist and psychoanalytic \u2013 have framed utopian themes during the 19th and 20th centuries. \u00a0In each case, the prevailing concept of the ego embedded in their respective theories grounded the philosophical approach. \u00a0With the individual subordinated to the commune, utopian communities were built from commitments to the collective good. In the individualistic psychoanalytic formulation, each might find a perfected state through personal insight and emotional liberation. With the second orientation, competing Enlightenment and postmodern agendas begin in the same place, namely, the very possibility of self-exploration according to psychoanalytic precepts. \u00a0Freud allowed for an autonomous ego, whereas much of post-Freudian criticism has characterized the \u201cde-centered subject\u201d and the plausibility of a psychoanalytic-inspired reconfiguration of social repression.\u00a0 Critical assessments of these perspectives will orient our examination of the utopian idea.<\/p>\n This seminar on Freud\u2019s theory of psychoanalysis will examine the underlying philosophical themes and structure of his thought, which stretch between his positivist commitments to a science of the mind and a humanist\u2019s understanding of self identity. Through a close reading of Freudian texts, we will emphasize four topics: 1) Freud\u2019s success\/failure of establishing psychic cause; 2) the structure and dynamics of the psyche; 3) the paradox of free will\/determinism in the analytic setting, which leads to the moral structure of psychoanalysis, and 4) the character of the self as the subject of analysis.<\/p>\n This course will be framed by a historical survey of the problem of free will and determinism, which will be followed with a contemporary analysis from both philosophical and neuro-physiological perspectives.\u00a0 This latter analysis will emphasize the naturalism that pervades current thinking in philosophy of mind.<\/p>\n This course offers a broad survey of medical ethics. \u00a0We will begin with establishing the basic characteristics of health, disease, and illness, and then apply these categories to certain ethical issues in the clinical setting (both general and particular cases). Our goal is to guide the student in understanding the basic issues of contemporary debates in medical ethics within a philosophical framework. \u00a0This will require learning basic moral reasoning and some technical knowledge of the medical scenario.<\/p>\n The genre of nature writing addresses environmental ethics, the metaphysics of nature, the epistemological relationship between nature and human experience, and the spiritual significance or meaning of nature. \u00a0In environmental literature, each of these categories combine philosophical interpretations and arguments with a poetic sensibility. We will examine how an ecological sensitivity has been transmitted in literature as part of a larger philosophical project of presenting \u201cnature\u201d as a special concern for contemporary societies.<\/p>\n Some Past Courses:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
\nUtopianism in our Era<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nPhilosophy of Psychoanalysis<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nMetaphysics: Free Will & Determinism<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nMedical Ethics<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nEcology and Literature<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nTopics in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy:\u00a0POETRY, MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nGreat Philosophers<\/a>
\nTopics in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nPersons And Nature<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n