HISTORY OF IDEAS                   WORLD VIEWS

philosophical movements in socio-historical context

taught by  Dr Helena Sheehan   in  School of Communications  at  Dublin City University

•   introduction to the history of human thought:
•  the story so far ...
• the major transitions: from primitive to classical to medieval to modern thought
•  the relationship of philosophy  to economics, politics, culture, science and technology
• modern times: the ever more complex modern mind 
 
•  the rising crisis in intellectual foundations
•  religious traditions
•  enlightenment legacy: rationalism v empiricism
•  anti-enlightenment reaction: romanticism
•  evolutionary ideas: historicism
•  marxism / historical materialism / socialism
•  logical positivism / neo-positivism / linguistic analysis
•  pragmatism / radical empiricism / process philosophy
•  existentialism / phenomenology
•  postmodernism
• contemporary crisis: the postmodern mind 

 
•  making a montage of the morass  or continuing the quest for coherence ?
•  end of ideology / end of history theories / with no end in sight ?
•  the western canon and the rise of the repressed: the pc wars

 
• moving the story onward:
• writing grand narratives
• constructing world views
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  e-mail: helena.sheehan@dcu.ie