Philosophy 243 - Self-Knowledge and Self-Discovery

Institution:

Bard College

Subject:

Description:

Since Plato, self-knowledge has been thought to be indispensable to the fully human life. Yet a great number of philosophers have been struck by how puzzling a condition it is. For one thing, perhaps alone among the different kinds of knowledge, self-knowledge is presumed to change the object known, and to be an essentially private, subjective affair. In the context of self-knowledge, the terms "knowledge," "self,"subject," and "object" all become problematiWorking through these problems reveals both why self-knowledge is as valuable as it is, and why it is so difficult to achieve. The course begins not with philosophy but with Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus the King, as a way of disclosing that self-discovery is essentially a dramatic process. Thereafter, selections from Spinoza, Descartes, Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein are discussed.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.bard.edu

Phone Number:

(845) 758-6822

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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