Philosophies and Phenomenologies of Praxis

Anotace

WS 2022

Charles University

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

(BA Module + Erasmus students)

Daniele De Santis - Daniil Koloskov

Office hours: Wednesday 15:00-16:00 (De Santis); Wednesday 12:00-13:00 (Koloskov)

Email: [e-mail] [e-mail]

Philosophies and Phenomenologies of Praxis

(Wednesday 9:10-10:45)

Room: P225 1. General Description and Aims of the Module

The present class will present a survey of contemporary philosophy, with a special focus upon the phenomenological tradition that hinges on the concept of praxis broadly regarded. What is a praxis? How many different species of praxis can be identified and thus distinguished? Can one speak of a normativity immanent to the praxis?

On the basis of such broad, and general questions the class intends to explore the many different dimensions of our practical engagement with the world at the intersection of different philosophical traditions ranging from the neo-Idealism of the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce (with his distinction between the ethical and the economic form of praxis) to the phenomenology of both E. Husserl (with his different declinations of the notion of attitude) and M. Heidegger (and his claim on the primacy of everyday intelligibility); we will also explore how their insights are further developed by P. Bourdieu (with his notion of habitus and practical logic) and J. Patočka (with the differentiation between three fundamental practical movements of human life).

Once a basic understanding of the basic significance and many implications of the praxis have been obtained, the course will open up three further dimensions: that of the political meaning of the idea of praxis (H. Arendt), its role and function in Heidegger’s history of being according to Reiner Schürmann’s anarchic interpretation; finally, G. Agamben’s criticism of the very notion of “action” (hence, of praxis in general) will be discussed.