Fall 1999 Cyberseminar: The Continental Origins of Postmodernism

Introduction, Information, etc.

• Formal Announcement
• Schedule and Plan
• Writing Notes, by William Thomas and Notes on Method, by David Kelley

Index of Essays and Discussion

• Defining "Postmodernism"

Reading: Martin Heidegger, "What Is Metaphysics?"

• Heidegger Review by Brian Register
  • Comment by William Dale and follow-up
  • Comment by William Thomas and follow-up
  • Comment by Michael Young and follow-up
  • Discussion of Heidegger's Concept of "Dasein."
• Heidegger Review by Roger Donway
  • Comment by Eyal Mozes and follow-up
  • Comment by Jamie Mellway and follow-up
  • Artificiality in Heidegger
• Summary of Heidegger Discussion by Stephen Hicks and others

Reading: Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction Trans. Robert Hurley (Vintage/Random, 1980) Part One, "We 'Other Victorians,'" pp. 3-13; Part Four, Chapters 1-3, pp. 81-114.

• Foucault Review by William Dale
  • Comment by Jason Walker
• Foucault Review by David L. Potts
  • Comment by Eyal Mozes
  • Comment by David Ross and follow-up
  • Does Foucault Have an Argument?
• Summary of Foucault Discussion by Stephen Hicks

Reading: Jacques Derrida, "Cogito and the History of Madness" and "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences." Appears as Chapters 2 and 10, respectively of Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass (University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp. 31-63 and 278-293.

• Derrida Review by William Thomas
  • Comment by Shawn Klein
  • Comment by Roger Donway and follow-up on madness
  • David Potts on Derrida's "Of Grammatology"
• Derrida Review by Michal Fram-Cohen
  • Comment by Bryan Register and follow-up
• Summary of Derrida Discussion by Stephen Hicks

Reading: Richard Rorty "Solidarity or Objectivity?" in Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth, (Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp. 21-34. And pp. 3-9 of "The Contingency of Language" in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Cambridge University Press, 1989)

• Rorty Review by Will Wilkinson
  • Comment by David Potts and follow-up
• Rorty Review by Shawn Klein
  • Comment by Michal Fram-Cohen
  • Comment by David Ross and follow-up
• Summary of Rorty Discussion by Stephen Hicks

• Fall 1999 Wrap Up from the Moderator