180106 SE The Death of the Other (2018W)

Course Description
Philosophically, the death of the other confronts us with a set of questions that relates to how we conceptualize the relation between mind, meaning and world. In this seminar, we investigate the set of philosophical questions that the death of the other confront us with: What does it mean to lose one‘s world? What does it mean that words, objects, and places can in fact lose their meaning? What does it mean that time can stop its flow and nothing happens? How can experience becomes fragmented in a non-pathological way? And how do we conceptualize experiences of absence and the mode of survival of the death other? The aim of this course is to acquire phenomenological descriptions of absence that can provide a basis for better understanding grief as a phenomenon. In the seminar we will be reading phenomenological texts; Levinas, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Nancy ; psycho-analytical thinkers; Abraham and Torok, Freud, Winnicott, Lear, and recent philosophical contributions that deal with describing experiential and normative structures of grieving; Butler, Goldie, De Warren, Nussbaum, Kierkegaard, Solomon.

Method
- Focused readings of key articles and chapters
- Detailed critical discussions of texts
- Group discussions followed by presentation of key arguments
- Introductory mini-lectures by seminar leader
- Written weekly reflections
- Oral student presentations

Aim
The aim of the seminar is to make the students familiar with philosophical debates relating to the absent other, the death of the other, the role of grief for human self-understanding, the normative aspects of grieving and the role of death for our understanding of community and sociality more broadly construed. Furthermore, the seminar will enable the students to critically reflect on and participate in contemporary methodological debates questioning the role of philosophy for our understanding of everyday phenomena.