PHIL 414: Seminar in German: Post-Kantian Ethics

Fall 2013
Location: University Library 4670
Time: Tue. 2-4:50pm
Instructor: Mark Alznauer
Office: Crowe 3-167
Office Hours: Thurs. 12-2pm

CLASS DESCRIPTION: In this course, we will examine the debates concerning
nature of moral obligation in Kant and his successors. We will use Robert Sterns recent
book Understanding Moral Obligation as a guide though this complicated terrain. We
will read selections from Kants Groundwork and then proceed to consider reactions to
Kantian ethics in Schiller, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: To understand the philosophic development of
ethical thought after Kant.

TEACHING METHOD: Seminar.

EVALUATION:

1. In-class presentation: every student who is taking the class for full credit
will be expected to do one presentation. Typically, this will involve analyzing the basic
argument made by Stern in one of his chapters with some consideration of the criticisms
that can be lodged against his reading.
2. Paper Topics: On Sunday, November 17
th
, paper topics will be due.
These will be distributed to all class members. During class on the 19
th
, we will discuss
these proposals.
3. Seminar paper: About 4500 words, and absolutely no longer than 5500.
These are due on December 6
th
.
4. It is especially important given the nature of this course that students
devote a requisite amount of time to completing the required reading for each. Students
taking the class P/N are exempt from requirements 1-3, but are expected to fully
participate in classroom discussion.


READING LIST:

Understanding Moral Obligation: Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard
Robert Stern
Cambridge University Press, 2012 (978-1-107-01207-3)

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Immanuel Kant
Trans. by Mary Gregor
Cambridge University Press, 1997 (978-0-521-62695-8)

Elements of the Philosophy of Right
G. W. F. Hegel
Trans. by H. B. Nisbet
Cambridge University Press, 1995 (0-521-348889)

Fear and Trembling: A Dialectical Lyric
Sren Kierkegaard
Trans. by Sylvia Walsh
Cambridge University Press, 2006 (0-521-612691)

Works of Love
Sren Kierkegaard
Trans. by Hong & Hong
Princeton University Press, 1995 (0-691-059160)

Schedule

Week 1: Introduction: Narrating the Kantian Aftermath
1. Stern, UMO, Introduction & Chapter 1
2. OPTIONAL: MacIntyre, The Predecessor Culture from After Virtue
(blackboard)
3. OPTIONAL: Pippin, Chapter 3: Idealism and Modernity from Modernism as
a Philosophical Problem (blackboard) esp. pp. 60-77.
4. OPTIONAL: Fleischacker, Transformation from Divine Teaching & the Way
of the World (blackboard).

Week 2: Kant I
1. Stern, UMO, Chapter 2
2. Kant, Groundwork (4:428-4:444 and other relevant passages)
3. OPTIONAL: Ebels-Duggan, Kantian Ethics from The Continuum
Companion to Ethics (blackboard)

Week 3: Kant II
1. Stern, UMO, Chapter 3
2. Kant, Groundwork (4:406-427 and other relevant passages)
3. Baxley, The Problem of Obligation in Inquiry 55:6
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2012.746033)
4. OPTIONAL: See the relevant selections of Sterns A Reply to My Critics in
Inquiry 55:6 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2012.746039)
Week 4: Schiller
1. Schiller, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (esp. letters 3, 6-7, 12-
15, 27) (blackboard)
2. Stern, UMO, Chapter 4
3. OPTIONAL: Frederick Beiser, Dispute with Kant
http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-928282-X.pdf

Week 5: Hegel I
1. Hegel, The Spirit of Christianity from Hegels Theological Writings (esp. pp.
205-52) (blackboard)
2. Stern, Freedom, Self-Legislation and Morality in Kant and Hegel:
Constructivist vs. Realist Accounts from German Idealism: Contemporary
Perspectives (blackboard)

Week 6: Hegel II
1. Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Preface, 132-38, 142-57,
257-61.
2. Stern, UMO, Chapter 5
3. Pippin, Hegel and Institutional Rationality from Hegels Practical
Philosophy (blackboard)
4. OPTIONAL: Moyar, How the Good Obligates in Hegels Conception of
Sittlichkeit in Inquiry 55:6 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2012.746036)
5. OPTIONAL: See the relevant selections of Sterns A Reply to My Critics in
Inquiry 55:6 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2012.746039)

Week 7: Kierkegaard I
1. Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, pp. 57-95.
2. Stern, UMO, Chapter 6.
3. OPTIONAL: C. Stephen Evans, The Ethical in Fear and Trembling
(http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199272174.001.0001/acprof-
9780199272174-chapter-3)

Week 8: Kierkegaard II
1. Stern, UMO, Chapter 7.
2. Kierkegaard, Works of Love pp. 44-63, 114-22, 375-86.
3. Bristow, Thinking Outside the Circle in Inquiry 55:6
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2012.746037)
4. OPTIONAL: See the relevant selections of Sterns A Reply to My Critics in
Inquiry 55:6 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2012.746039)
Week 9: Presentation of essay topics

Week 10: Conclusion
1. Stern, UMO, Conclusion
2. Geuss, Outside Ethics from Outside Ethics (blackboard)