This course examines how the idea of "the modern" develops at the end of the 18th century in European philosophy and literature, and how being modern (or progressive, or hip) became one of the crucial criteria for understanding and evaluating cultural change. Are we still in modernity, or have we moved beyond the modern to the postmodern?
The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 2)
The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 2)
Instructor: Michael S. Roth
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Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.8
(359 reviews)
14 hours to complete
3 weeks at 4 hours a week
Flexible schedule
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There are 10 modules in this course
What's included
2 readings
With a focus on Civilization and its Discontents, we examine how Freud’s theories tried to expose profound instincts as they appeared in daily life.
What's included
4 videos1 reading
A reading of Virginia Woolf’s modernist novel To the Lighthouse shows how giving up the search for the “really real” can liberate one to attend to the everyday.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 peer review
We go back to Ralph Waldo Emerson and forward to Ludwig Wittgenstein to consider how forms of life and language games need to foundation to be compelling.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 peer review
Through a consideration of Max Horkheimer & Theodor Adorno along with Michel Foucault, we confront the philosophical effort to escape from totality in order to understand the politics of control.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 peer review
A very brief consideration of how artists are responding to the loss of foundations to produce work that redefines art.
What's included
2 videos
We examine short pieces by Judith Butler and Slavjo Zizek to understand how identities get formed (and performed) in a world without foundations.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 peer review
Review of all the thinkers we have studied in Parts I and II of the class, along with some complementary material.
What's included
4 videos
After postmodern playfulness, or alongside it, we see the resurgence of the pragmatic impulse to return philosophy to real human problems.
What's included
3 videos1 reading1 peer review
What's included
1 peer review
Instructor
Instructor ratings
4.9 (48 ratings)Offered by
Recommended if you're interested in History
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Learner reviews
4.8
359 reviews
- 5 stars
83%
- 4 stars
12.53%
- 3 stars
2.78%
- 2 stars
0.55%
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1.11%
Showing 3 of 359
AM
5
Reviewed on Feb 22, 2016
My favourite MOOC of all time! Changed the way I viewed the world and introduced me to the wonderful new world of philosophy. Thank you Micheal S. Roth! :)
DC
4
Reviewed on Jan 19, 2022
it really offered an insight into philosophical movements and works as well as an overall view on the evolution of Enlightenment ideas and their impact on modern thought
PB
5
Reviewed on Aug 5, 2020
really enjoyed the course. When are they going to d a course on late existentialist thinkers? Some of the readings were unavailable.
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