WORLD VIEWS

philosophical movements of the contemporary era

for  MA in International Relations, MA in Globalisation, MA in International Security & Conflict, MA in Political Communication, MA in Journalism

at  Dublin City University

taught by  Dr Helena Sheehan  in  School of Communications

LECTURES (with multimedia presentations) 
week 1     overview of course
                    the big questions / basic philosophies / root metaphors
                         philosophies of history
                                     grand narratives: past & present
                         integrating intellectual history & autobiography
                                    course diaries
some  questions   to be explored in the course of these lectures
introductory dvd
timeline of western philosophy (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

week 2      modernity / modernism
                      the making of the modern mind
                             capitalism, protestantism & the scientific revolution
                             the legacy of the enlightenment
                             rationalism v empiricism
                             anti-enlightenment reaction: romanticism
                             liberalism v conservatism
                             evolutionary ideas
                  multimedia presentation on modern philosophy

week 3      empiricism; anglo-american philosophical traditions
                    positivism / logical positivism / neo-positivism / analytic philosophy
                    pragmatism / radical empiricism

week 4     marxism: the theoryMarx-Engels-Forum Berlin
multimedia presentation of marxism

week 5    marxism: the practice
 

   marxism in power: experiments in the relationship of world view & social order
        politics & philosophy in the USSR & Eastern Europe
    online reading: October Revolution: early dilemmas and debates
               Ideas and purges: soviet intellectual life and the 5 year plans
                                                         Lysenko and lysenkoism
              The comintern and the intellectuals
                                                          Bernal  / Haldane / Caudwell
             The dissolution and disillusion of the Comintern

      marxism after the fall
            online reading: The Fate of Marxism
               Has the red flag fallen ?
               European socialism: a blind alley or a long and winding road ?

week 6        existentialism / phenomenology / varieties of continental philosophy
                                  Camus "The Myth of Sisyphus"  to read the text, click  here
           slides on existentialism

week 7 reading week

week 8  postmodernism
slides on postmodernism

week 9     end-of-ideology / end-of-history theories
             slides on end-of-history and grand narratives
                        text  grand narratives then & now: can we still conceptualise history ?
                 the future of politics & philosophy
                                             writing grand narratives ?
                                             constructing world views ?

week 10    the western canon and the rise of the repressed: class, race, gender & knowledge
slides on the rise of the repressed
                       Brecht questions from a worker who reads
                        the pc wars, the culture wars, the science wars
                        feminist epistemolgy ?

week 11     eurocentrism and its critics: african alternatives
                        universalism and multiculturalism

week 12     contemporary ideological debates
                                     review of course

course diaries due at end of week 12