A non-refundable programme fee, in addition to the tuition fee, is applicable. The programme fee, which includes the social programme, is to be paid within one week after registration at the latest, along with the tuition fee.
This course is open for students from all disciplines who have a deep interest in philosophy. Prior exposure to the field of philosophy will be helpful.
Please visit our website (www.fubis.org) for an overview of all courses offered and for possible updates to the course programme.
About this course
Philosophy has constituted a central element in the emergence of modern German culture. During the late 18th century, German philosophy participated in the wider European Enlightenment culture, which, in turn, was intertwined with the development of modern empirical science. Influenced by the historical changes brought about by the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, a special constellation of German philosophy emerged at the end of the 18th century. This philosophical movement has had a profound and enduring impact on subsequent philosophical thought, extending far beyond the borders of Germany.
This philosophy course addresses the historical reality of this "German moment of philosophy" in two subsequent phases: in the first part, we follow the emergence and full deployment of German philosophy from its Kantian beginnings to Hegel’s grand but fragile synthesis, trying to understand its richness as well as its fragility. In a second part, we discuss the later renewal of German philosophy in the late 19th century and its historical tragedy in the 20th century. This will include a discussion of the new beginnings of philosophy since the mid-19th century, starting with influential thinkers such as Marx and Nietzsche, and extending to Frege, Husserl, and Wittgenstein. These philosophers reacted to the scientific and political revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Martin Heidegger, as an established pro-Nazi philosopher, and Max Horkheimer, as the leading philosopher of the "Frankfurt School" driven into exile, are studied as philosophers inevitably linked to the "Night of the 20th Century".
Finally, post-World War II developments in philosophy (as exemplified by Jürgen Habermas) will be examined as pathways out of the self-destructive turn that the "moment of German philosophy" had taken in the first decades of the 20th century. This shift also signifies a transition into an emerging global philosophy.
The course will be centred around contemporary attempts to reconsider a global philosophical perspective. The focus will be on the tension between the Enlightenment heritage of a universalising human philosophy and a national culture project as well as on the tension between classicist rationalism and romantic emotionalism in its construction as a series of philosophical projects. From the perspective of a German version of the dialectics of the Enlightenment, the German philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries will be studied in context – combining the reading of key texts with a reconstruction of their historical contexts and their interaction.
A non-refundable programme fee, in addition to the tuition fee, is applicable. The programme fee, which includes the social programme, is to be paid within one week after registration at the latest, along with the tuition fee.
Students must be able to speak, read, and write English at an advanced intermediate level.
FUBiS can arrange appropriate off-campus accommodation for the duration of the programme as an optional service upon request. Accommodation options can be chosen during the registration process. Accommodation is subject to availability.
Prices range between 550 EUR and 1,350 EUR.
FUBiS offers a variety of extracurricular activities, which are included in the programme fee:
In addition, FUBiS offers optional excursions (for an extra cost) within Berlin as well as to other popular German cities.
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Language course/short course
