ML: The Radiance of Vienna. Central European Philosophy and Culture in Early XX Century

intermediate

FI2_W06 FI2_W07 FI2_W08 FI2_W12 FI2_W16

FI2_U04 FI2_U17

The purpose of this course is to provide context for understanding some crucial philosophical and cultural tendencies of the XX century. The students are expected to understand better the origins of new ideas and practices that made a decisive impact on contemporary thought. Many of those ideas took origin in Vienna's intellectual and artistic life before the Great War. From them, they diffused onto the whole Central European region as well as in Western countries. Studying this period will help students to understand multilateral relations among very different domains of culture: philosophy, architecture, music, art, literature.

This course aims at reconstructing the unique composition of factors that made Vienna of the first three decades of XX century the most exciting cultural milieu in which all kinds of new ideas in philosophy, art, music, and literature flourished. They were all connected by the awareness of the inevitable end of the epoch. Despite this feeling, Vienna of that time witnessed an unprecedented surge of ingenious novelties in practically all sphere of knowledge and culture, from new ideas in mathematics and science to groundbreaking inventions in music and architecture. It was probably the last period where all these domains were so fruitfully intertwined. Philosophy of that time both contributed to the development and benefited from it. Vienna was then home to the famous Vienna Circle, with thinkers like R. Carnap, O. Neurath, M. Schlick. It was the time when K. R. Popper and L. Wittgenstein started their philosophical work. It is where Ernst Mach acted as a highly influential and charismatic preacher of the scientific world view (empirio-criticism). It is where Brentano philosophical school gave rise to such an unlikely couple of traditions like Husserlian Phenomenology and Lvow-Warsaw School. It is where S. Freud invented psychoanalysis as a therapy as well as a theory of culture, K. Kraus run his authoritative and committed journal "Die Fackel" in which he pursued new social and political ideas and advanced radical cultural criticism. At precisely the same time, Arnold Schoenberg started to break with four centuries-long musical tonal traditions; by introducing the dodecaphonic system, he created a new beginning for both music theory and aesthetics. In architecture, Adolf Loos initiated a vehement debate about new architecture (paralleling the massive disagreement concerning the German Bauhaus) as he announced the death of ornament and preached the dominance of function. Some of these developments found artistic depictions in writers such as Robert Musil (The Man Without Qualities) and Hermann Broch (The Sleepwalkers).

The course breaks down into two parts: lecture and seminar. The seminar will follow the guide of three seminal literary works: Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities, Hermann Broch's The Sleepwalkers, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. The first two novels emerge directly from the Viennese background. The third one reflects similar problems and ideas from the German perspective. These readings will be extended by fragments of works by other authors belonging to the Central European cultural realm. The aim of this part of the course will be establishing links between literature, art, and philosophy.

1. R. Musil, The Man Without Qualities

2. J. Frazen, Das Kraus Projekt

3. Janik, S. Toulmin, Wittgenstein’s Vienna

4. K. R. Popper, All Life is Problem Solving

5. H. Broch, The Spirit in an Unspiritual Age

6. W. Johnston, The Austrian Mind. An Intellectual and Social History 1848-1939

7. L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus

8. R. Monk, The Duty of Genius

9. A. Loos, Ornament and Crime

10. T. W. Adorno, Philosophy of New Music

11. Z. Talay, Philosophy, Literature and the Dissolution of Subject

12. B. Smith, Foundation of Gestalt Theory

13. B. Smith, Austrian Philosophy. The Legacy of Franz Brentano

14. K. Sigmund, Sie nannten sich Der Wiener Kreis. Exactes Denken am Rand des Untergangs

15. S. Zweig, The World of Yesterday

Knowledge: Good orientation in the intellectual landscape of Vienna at the beginning of 20th century. The impact of Viennese culture on future development in philosophy, art, and literature

Skills: looking up and understanding the links between phenomena in different domains of culture; seeing the contemporary versions or follow-ups of the historic ideas

Attitudes & Values: openness to inspirations from beyond one's field of study; learning from works with which one does not share the views or standpoint.

This class will be given on-line. It consists of two parts: a monographic lecture and an interactive class. For each, the workload comprises 30 hours of on-line activity with the instructor, 30 hours of systematic readings, 30 hours of presentation of oral exam preparation correspondingly.

Assessment: Powerpoint presentation & oral exam (on-line)

Does not apply