Contact Information

Professor:

 Abe Stone (abestone@ucsc.edu)

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Office:

 Cowell Annex A-106

Phone (office):

 459-5723

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Website:

 https://people.ucsc.edu/~abestone/courses

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Office hours:

 Tues. 11am–1pm

Course Description

The nineteenth century was a hundred years long, and during that time a lot of things happened in philosophy. In this course we will trace a particular strand that runs through Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Despite great differences in style and philosophical views, we will see certain themes that run throughout, including, among others: freedom of will as involving a self that can stand outside and above itself; nature as a symbol of spirit; poetry as a mediator between the self and nature; and questions about the value of morality in relation to something higher than morality. These themes are characteristically nineteenth-century (for example, versions of them can also be found in Hegel and Kierkegaard), although certainly not all nineteenth century philosophers thought along these lines.

Course Requirements

Two short essays, 2–3 pages each, due Wednesday, January 29, and Wednesday, March 4 (each worth 15% of the grade). (For the first essay, there will be a choice of essay questions about Schelling; for the second, a choice of essay questions about Coleridge. The third essay, about Emerson and/or Fuller, will be more free-form, but there will be a list of suggested topics.) One final paper, 4–6 pages, due Wednesday, March 18 (worth 55% of the grade).

• First essay assignment
• Third essay assignment
• Final paper assignment

Papers are due as an attachment via the “Assignments” tool on Canvas. The assignments will be available online and there will be links to them from the online version of this syllabus as well as from my main course page.

• Canvas site
• main course page

Note that all assignments are due by 11:55pm on the due date.

You can find answers to some commonly asked questions about my assignments and grading in my FAQ.

• FAQ

Attendance at lecture is strongly encouraged, but it is not a course requirement and I will not be taking attendance.

Texts

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

, tr. R.J. Hollingdale (Penguin Classics, 1961) (ISBN: 0140441182).

Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations

, ed. Daniel Breazdale (Cambridge University Press; 2nd ed., 1997) (ISBN: 978-0521585842).

F.W.J. Schelling, System of Transcendental Idealism (1800)

, tr. Peter Heath (University of Virginia Press, 1978) (ISBN: 978-0813914589).

The above texts have been ordered at the Bay Tree Bookstore, and are also, along with some other relevant books, on reserve at McHenry (except that Thus Spoke Zarathustra is currently on reserve in a different translation). Readings from Coleridge, Emerson, and Fuller will be available online.