European Intellectual History Since Nietzsche – Course Summary

This course, "European Intellectual History Since Nietzsche," is an introductory-level survey designed for all majors with no prerequisites. It aims to provide a general understanding of the modern period in European intellectual history, serving as a gateway into the humanities.

Course Structure and Logistics

The course is structured around two lectures per week, followed by mandatory discussion sections. Lectures are recorded and will be available on a YouTube channel at the end of the semester, but in-person attendance is required for lectures. Handouts with names, dates, concepts, terms, and quotations will be posted on Canvas before each lecture to aid note-taking and serve as study guides.

Readings are primarily primary sources, with most available online or through a course reader at Docuprint. Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" is the only required physical book. The lectures are designed to set up the readings, which can be dense. Students are advised to read the material before and after lectures, as the lectures provide context and interpretation. The number of pages assigned for reading is inversely proportional to the difficulty of the text; dense readings will have fewer pages.

Teaching Fellows (TFs) will lead discussion sections, which are mandatory and contribute to the final grade. Attendance will be taken in sections but not in lectures. The TFs for this semester are Daniel, Yun-in, Sophia, Sebastian, Susanna, and Matthew. Susanna and Sophia have prior experience as TFs for this class, and Daniel took the course as an undergraduate.

The instructor's office hours are by online appointment and vary weekly. Students can check the syllabus for the link and available slots. While office hours are generally in-person, remote appointments can be scheduled.

A strict policy of no electronic devices during class is enforced to foster a special in-person learning environment.

Instructor's Background and Perspective

The instructor is a Europeanist historian specializing in the modern period and intellectual history, with research focused on Eastern Europe, particularly using Slavic languages like Czech, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Slovak. This background will infuse a unique perspective on the continent's history. The ongoing war in Ukraine is acknowledged as a significant contemporary event that raises questions about 20th-century understandings and the present moment, and it will influence course discussions. The decision to record and post lectures online was partly inspired by the pandemic's lessons on remote education and the desire to make educational content accessible to students globally, especially those in challenging circumstances.

The Nature of Intellectual History

Intellectual history is an interdisciplinary field, bordering on history, philosophy, history of philosophy, and comparative literature. While it examines texts typically found in literature and philosophy departments, it does so from an explicitly historical perspective. This means studying ideas within their specific historical contexts, constantly moving between abstract concepts and concrete realities.

The core principle is that ideas are produced by real people, in real times, and real places. This contrasts with analytical philosophy, which often purifies arguments from historical context. The course will primarily engage with continental philosophy, which embraces historical consciousness and contradictions, unlike analytical philosophy's focus on logic and consistency.

The instructor emphasizes that intellectual history is not about determining who was "right" but about understanding what thinkers were trying to achieve. It's a history of questions rather than definitive answers, exploring how these questions evolve over time. Thinkers are viewed as imperfect individuals responding to the "dramas, tragedies, and angst" of their own moments. The course acknowledges that ideas can be interpreted and used in ways unintended by their authors, and that "sadistic lunatics" have played significant historical roles, making history inherently messy and often disturbing. The classroom environment, however, will be a "safe space" for respectful discussion.

The Course's Starting Point: "Since Nietzsche"

The course title, "European Intellectual History Since Nietzsche," is a tribute to the instructor's late colleague, Frank Turner, who initiated the course design. Although the title suggests a starting point at Nietzsche, the course actually begins with two overview lectures on the Enlightenment and Romanticism, followed by Hegel, before reaching Nietzsche. This initial broad overview is crucial for understanding the modern period.

The Central Problem of Modernity

The course explores the concept of modernity, traditionally dated from the French Revolution in 1789. Modernity is characterized as a "break in time," a departure from tradition, and a shift from a cyclical understanding of time to a progressive, forward-moving one. This transition is often experienced as a "trauma," as illustrated by the character Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof," who faces a series of destabilizing changes from romantic love to revolution.

The "short version" of modernity is an attempt to replace God, who historically provided epistemological (knowledge), ontological (being), and ethical functions. The "death of God," a central theme of the course, leaves a significant void. Modernity grapples with filling this void, often with concepts like History (with a capital H) or Man (with a capital M), leading to tension between subjectivity and teleology (the idea of time moving towards a goal).

The "central problem of modernity" is identified as alienation – the feeling of being "homeless in the world" after the loss of a divine anchor. The course will trace the narrative arc from modernity to postmodernity and post-truth, concluding with an examination of post-truth's origins and the nature of evil in such a world.

The course will cover a range of influential thinkers, including Marx, Freud, Hegel, Nietzsche, Lenin, Kafka, Husserl, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Heidegger, Adorno, Sartre, Girard, Derrida, and Foucault.