The aim of this course is to extract and assess the pragmatic theses that are present in the phenomenological works of M. Heidegger, M. Merleau-Ponty and J. Patočka. We will read and critically assess both primary texts and several pragmatic readings of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, while focusing on the the following themes as possible justifications for speaking about the pragmatic turn in phenomenology:
- the primacy of the practical over theoretical understanding
- criticism of the representationalist account of perception
- analysis of truth claims within the context of social and cultural practices.