Course: Critical thinking

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Course title Critical thinking
Course code KFHS/P500
Organizational form of instruction Lecture
Level of course Master
Year of study not specified
Semester Winter
Number of ECTS credits 5
Language of instruction Czech
Status of course Compulsory
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements This is not an internship
Recommended optional programme components None
Lecturer(s)
  • Moural Josef, doc. RNDr. CSc.
Course content
1) Introduction to critical thinking: What is critique? What is its role in philosophy? What reasons does it have? What philosophic tools can it use to reach its goals? What role do these instruments play in philosophic conceptions of relations between man, society and nature? Does critical thinking differ in modern and contemporary era of philosophy? 2) Renaissance critique and its contrasts: utopia and scepsis. De Montaigne's rejection of anthropocentrism. Importance of nature for definition of the "human nature". Hobbes' critique of man's "animal" egoism. 3) Cartesian methodical scepsis. Reliable representation in rationalism. Seeking for certainty, mistrusting passions. Mechanical idea of nature: contrary to man, animal is a machine. 4) Rousseau's ambivalent critique of nature and "human nature". Search for immediate connection through mediation and representation: aporetical metaphor of "noble savage". 5) Hume's agnosticism. Critique of generalized repetition of experience, which is a mere habit in Hume: nature cannot be scientifically understood. Mediating role of imagination in empirism. 6) Kant's transcendental critique as a response to philosophic dogmatism. Search for apriori condition of possibility of human mind's ability to scientifically understand nature. Kant's conception of anthropology prefers man to animal, which has no moral values. 7) Schelling's idealist critique of scientific ideas on nature as a dead object. Contrary to rationalism, he conceives nature as a living pre-force creating human spirit. Comparison with Spinoza's conception of pantheism. 8) Nietzsche's destruction of metaphysics by means of his genealogy of moral concepts. Critique with hammer. Man defined by Christian morals is overcame in Superman, who freed himself both from Christian morals and nature. 9) Heidegger's existential critique of animal insufficiency: animal has no human hand, thus it has no technology, no culture, no being-to-death. Comparison with Descartes and Kant. 10) Foucault's discursive critique of universally valid knowledge of life. Power and discursive regulation of enunciation on nature. Epistemic breaks: historical relativism of knowledge on nature. 11) Deleuze's and Guattari's critique of Freud's and Lacan's psychoanalysis. Human unconscious is not what separates man and animal, it is a machine producing assemblages of flowing desire by connecting images and affects: becoming-animal, multiplicity, pack. 12) Derrida's deconstruction of totalitarian nature of prejudices. Beast and sovereign. "Animot": rhetorical violence of animal idioms and concept of "animal" in singular. Bio-deconstruction. 13) Butler's subversive critique of Lévinas' exclusive conception of human face as a reason for for non-violence. Risks of binary thinking: queer, animals and precarious lives. Construction of enemy and frames of compassion. 14) Conclusion, discussion

Learning activities and teaching methods
unspecified, unspecified
Learning outcomes
The course introduces key philosophical conceptions of critique in modern and contemporary philosophy. It aims to demonstrate, ilustrate an compare different critical tools used to reach different philosophic goals. Selection of presented conceptions is ruled by importance of the role of critique in philosophic understanding of relations between man, society, and nature.
Students are able to prepare a 30 minute lecture/lesson on any of the discussed topics and to proceed with further studying somewhat advanced primary and secondary literature. Students improve their ability to work with various ways of critical thinking in philosophy.
Prerequisites
None

Assessment methods and criteria
unspecified
Seminar work Active participation in seminars Colloquium
Recommended literature
  • Butler, J. Rámce války. Praha, Karolinum, 2013. ISBN 978-80-246-2265-1.
  • de Boer, K., Sonderegger, R. Conceptions of Critique in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy. Palgrave, 2011.
  • Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. Tisíc plošin. Praha, 2010.
  • Derrida, J. Síla zákona. Praha, 2002.
  • Derrida, J. The Beast and the Sovereign, I. a II.. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2011. ISBN 2009.
  • Descartes, R. Vášně duše. Praha, Mladá fronta, 2002.
  • Foucault, M. Archeologie vědění. Praha, 2016.
  • Foucault. M. Introduction to Kant's Anthropology. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2008.
  • Heidegger, M. Co je metafyzika?. Praha, 1993.
  • Hobbes, T. Leviathan. Praha, 2009.
  • Hume, D. Pojednání o lidské přirozenosti. Praha, 2020.
  • Kant. I. Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view. Cambridge, 2006.
  • Kant. I. Prolegomena. Svoboda, 1992.
  • Nietzsche, F. Soumrak model. Olomouc, Votobia, 1995.
  • Rousseau, J.-J. Vyznání. Rybka, 2017.


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester