KENYON COLLEGE
OLOF PALME HOUSE
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines the epistemological, moral, and political works of Kant and Hegel in light of their value for modern social/political theory. Selections will be chosen from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason and Hegel's Philosophy of Right and The Phenomenology of Spirit. The goal of the course is to re-think the philosophical foundations and assumptions which underlie the development of the modern social sciences and social/political theory; it is a course in the metaphysics of modern science and theory. Most of the major European social theories are grounded in neo-Kantianism or neo-Hegelianism, and many of the confusing differences of political perspectives become clearer upon analysis of the original texts themselves. The goals of objective knowledge, verifiable truth, science, value-free analysis and the questions of freedom and determinism, the individual and society, economic justice and individual autonomy, i.e., the debates between liberals, conservatives, and Marxists within the European intellectual community, center upon these two German Idealists. Finally, mention will be made of the contemporary developments in political and social theory which have been affected at the methodological, theoretical, and political levels by Kant and Hegel.