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Central Topics of the Collegium Philosophiae Transatlanticum

 

The Main Topic: Subject and Person in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy   Current philosophical discussions following the postmodern proclamation of the "death of the subject" or the question of an ethics for the new millennium, but also extra-philosophical themes like the intercultural ideological human rights debate in play in international politics--they all have made subject and person - a central theme of modern thinking - again a 'need for philosophy.' Beginning with Descartes, via Locke and Leibniz to Kant, Fichte, Schelling und Hegel, again from German Idealism up to Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre, the subject lies at the center of discussion about the bases of being, cognition, and science as well as about the bases of reasonable human action in the realms of right, morality and politics. In short: the subject lies at the center of philosophy. Fundamentally questioned, as it is, the subject is not only in need of a historical account but also of a systematic reworking. Moreover, subjectivity is, today more than ever before, a central problem of the legal and social sciences, of literary theory, art theory, medicine and psychology, and hence requires interdisciplinary treatment in research and teaching. The research and dissertation projects at the COLLEGIUM PHILOSOPHIAE TRANSATLANTICUM are supposed to investigate subjectivity precisely not as an isolated philosophical problem or as a topic of an individual science, but from the start as an interdisciplinary task with regard to both method and content, in particular with respect to questions like the psychosomatic unity of the person, intercultural communication, or gender difference. The research program aims at the intricate relations of subject, person and subjectivity which determined the modern discussion in philosophy and science. The philosophical-historical treatment of central topics of modern discussion is therefore one fundamental component of the research done at the COLLEGIUM; they can obviously not be reduced to historical questions but must be understood in their systematic significance. American philosophical debates have once again drawn attention to the subject, in particular in the context of currently discussed questions of  Philosophy of Mind. The postmodern debate about the alleged 'death of the subject' lead to controversy already in the eighties, which necessitated a new reflection on the classical and modern them of the subject.  Motivated by a pointed discussion of problems of intersubjectivity emerging from Husserl's phenomenology, especially in France,  the 'Other' and 'alterity' find their central place in debates in Germany and America. Moreover, the concept of subjectivity in German Idealism must be recognized and treated as one of the central topics of philosophical research in the last decades. Significant extra-philosophical calls for a re-examination of problems of subjectivity emerge from debates in the political realm - e.g., initiated by politicians and intellectuals in the Near East and Southeast Asia - which fundamentally question the Western idea of human rights. Further, exponentially rising pressure found at the beginning of the new century--under which we find ourselves with ecological concerns due to the technological progress in such fields as nuclear energy, gene technology or electronics--makes the question how subject and person are to understand and deal with technology more and more urgent.  The increasing globalization in many cultural realms also poses the question of the subject in its intercultural relations.  The feminist movement raised a new consciousness for the question, what significance gender difference has for the person as psychosomatic entity? The question of the unity of the person is also posed by the consideration of the various roles human beings take up within our highly complex modern society. All these questions show dimensions of the problem that can, on the one hand, be treated in the individual sciences, such as legal and social sciences, literary theory, art theory, psychology and medicine; but also require, on the other hand, a thorough and strictly philosophical analysis of subjectivity.


 
 
 

Central Topics (return)   The 31 dissertation and post-doctoral projects of the COLLEGIUM PHILOSOPHIAE TRANSATLANTICUM cannot, of course, cover the entire spectrum of the philosophical and interdisciplinary questions sketched out above, neither historically nor systematically. The concrete focus of research chosen by the fellows of the first period of study is certainly influenced by the areas of specialization of participating faculty, by current tendencies in philosophy or in the debates of the individual sciences; and last, but not least, by the specific interests of the fellows themselves. For, as we kow from Hegel, nothing is achieved without interest. One important criterion for the selection of projects from the pool of applicants were, however, their demonstrated qualifications for the intended transatlantic, but also national, coooperation among the participants. Under these circumstances the seven emphases of research that were originally planned and proposed in the first application for a grant from the DEUTSCHE FORSCHUNGSGEMEINSCHAFT were fundamentally modified. Instead slightly different emphases of research have now developed and are ascribed to the particular students as follows: 1. Theoretical Philosophy Under this heading are combined research projects that deal with, on the one hand, questions of epistemology and faculty psychology in Kant's philosophy; and, on the other, comparative reconstructions of the phenomenological approach as exemplified by Edmund Husserl. That the specific reception and critical discussion of French philosophy of the 20th century is thematized in its relation to the problem of subjectivity is hardly surprising for a graduate program of the early 21st century. The anthropological question of the mind-body distinction, which has found new interest in the late 20th century, is primarily situated systematically and in its historical context (particularly with regard to its origins in the Cartesian tradition and its critique by Hegel and his successors). The following projects work in the field of theoretical philosophy: Sean Kirkland, The Task of Thinking and the atopia of Plato's Socrates Mark Fisher, Kant and the Rational Ordering of Nature Julia Jansen, Motion in Depth of the Soul: Recovering Phantasia in Kant and Husserl Jennifer Mensch, Sensation in Kant Lina Rizzoli, Transzendentale Wahrheit in der Phänomenologie Edmund Husserls Lee-Chun Lo, Das Gottesproblem in der Phänomenologie Husserls Lanai Rodemeyer, Husserl's Temporality and Intersubjectivity Michael Shim, Leibnizian Metaphysics and the Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity Tanja Stähler, Das natürliche Bewußtsein auf dem Weg zur Philosophie – Eine vergleichende Studie zu Hegels und Husserls ‚Phänomenologie‘ Shigeru Taguchi, Monadologie als Intersubjektivitätstheorie Matthew Dance, Foucault and Phenomenology Dorothea Wildenburg, Vollzug der Freiheit – Sartres Transzendentalphilosophie im Lichte der Subjektivitätsphilosophie Fichtes Dr. Oliver Cosmus, Das Leib-Seele-Problem in der Philosophie der Gegenwart 2. Practical Philosophy The two realms of practical philosophy offer not only the most appropriate and contemporary opportunities for an interdisciplinary involvement of the philosophical theme of the COLLEGIUM PHILOSOPHIAE TRANSATLANTICUM, but also the most accute need for discussion and the most conflictual material within philosophy. One essential focus of the debate in the area of political philosophy is the critical reconstruction and interpretation of classical theories of natural law and civic society going back to the Kantian tradition. It appears that the realm of ethics and moral philosophy is the most multifaceted - methodologically, sythematically and historically- since it is obvious that all philosophical schools and almost all integrated individual sciences can and want to make contributions. The spectrum of the ‘ethical approaches‘ includes historical reconstructions of 18th and 20th century (in particular Heideggerian) philosophical concepts, but also comparitive studies (for example, on Kant and Levinas) as well as concrete questions of applied ethics in psychotherapy and gerontology. The following projects work in the realm of practical philosophy in the COLLEGIUM: 2.1. Philosophy of Law and Political Philosphy Andreas Thomas, Das Verhältnis von Recht und Ethik in der praktischen Philosophie Kants Rainer Friedrich, Eigentum und Staatsbegründung in Kants ‚Metaphysik der Sitten‘ Dr. Dieter Hüning, Begründung der Strafgewalt in den Rechts- und Staatstheorien des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts Claudia Bangert: Der Begriff der Freiheit bei Hegel und Marx Eva Maria Müller, Die Stellung des Menschen und seiner Entwicklungsstufen im Rahmen der medizinischen Forschung, Arzneimittelentwicklung und Patentierung 2.2. Ethics Dr. Timothy M. Costelloe, Hume's Basis of Morality Michael Hughes, Finite Virtue - Ethics of Deconstruction. Kant, Levinas, Derrida Christopher Fox, Religion as Spirit or Religion as Ethics: Hegel and Levinas on Universal, Particular, and Singular Christian Lotz, Können und Reflexion. Ansätze einer Phänomenologie praktischer Subjektivität im Ausgang von Husserl und Heidegger Beate Obst, Aufruf und Antwort: Heideggers Interpretation des Gewissens Sarah Miller, Aging, Embodiment, and Subjectivity: An Ethical Account Heike Schmidt-Felzmann, Ethik und Psychotherapie Martin Burger, Daseinsanalyse, Psychotherapie und Philosophische Praxis 3. Aesthetics The questions of the philosophy of beauty and art can and must be considered in the German-American graduate program with respect to their implications and dimensions for a theory of subjectivity. The utilization of aesthetics and its objects for an antirationalistic desubjectifying position in the shadow of the postmodern declaration of the subject's death is one of the possible motivations for such an investigation. At the center of this division, which enables and requires interdisciplinary work, we find the classical aethetic theories of the 18th and 19th century, which are examined concerning the question of a possible specifically aesthetic subjectivity. Situated within this--currently smallest--section of the COLLEGIUM are the following projects: Charles Edward Emmer, Space, Sight, and Aesthetics: Kant and the Possibility of Non-Ocular Aesthetic Experience Dr. Jochen A. Bär, Der Geistbegriff der deutschen Frühromantik Gideon Stiening, Die Idee der Subjektivität in Hegels Ästhetik Tonu Viik, Hegel's Phenomenology of Culture Frauke Annegret Kurbacher, Zwischen Aisthesis und Reflexion – Strukturelle Eigenart und mediale Kompetenzen von Urteilskraft im 18. Jahrhundert

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