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Research Interests:
The problem of the modern idea of freedom in Kant’s critical
philosophy and in Hegel’s and German idealism; Martin Heidegger’s
interpretations of Friedrich Hölderlin and Friedrich Nietzsche
on the Dionysian-Apollonian dynamic of the historical sublime; the
function of prejudice in Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical
hermeneutics and Wang Fuzhi’s neo-Confucian philosophy.
Teaching Interests:
I offer two introductory courses to philosophy. In Philosophy 105,
Love, Friendship, and the Ethical Life, we consider and evaluate
ancient Greek, modern European, postmodern, and feminist conceptions
of the role of love and friendship in the ethical life. In Philosophy
106, The Philosophy of Consciousness and the Problem of Embodiment,
we again look at ancient Greek, modern European, postmodern, and
feminist conceptions, but this time of the mind-body problem.
In the four intermediate-level philosophy courses that I offer,
I focus on questions raised by 19th and 20th century European philosophers
that continue to provoke thinking today. How we are to answer these
questions is important for anyone who thinks critically about the
West and the influence of the West on the rest of the world. The
first course, Philosophy 225, The Concept of Freedom and the Dialectic
of the Master and Slave, uses the opposition between Nietzsche’s
negative interpretation of “slave mentality” and the
positive interpretation of “slave mentality” found (in
one form or another) in Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard to raise questions
about the modern European (and North American) concept of freedom.
Philosophy 226, Nietzsche, takes up the question “What, after
Nietzsche, is truth?” and looks at the conflicting theories
of truth to be found in Nietzsche’s early and later philosophical
writings as well as in his work of fiction, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
The third intermediate-level course that I offer, Philosophy 227,
The Linguistic Turn in Modern European Philosophy, takes us into
the profound debate between Husserl and Heidegger, between Gadamer
and Heidegger, and between Derrida and Gadamer about the constitutive
role played by language on thinking. The fourth course, Philosophy
228, The Logos and the Dao, challenges the postmodern construction
of “China” as the (feminine) poetic “Other”
to the (masculine) metaphysical “West.” We critically
evaluate the linguistic turn to the East on the part of those who
link the thought of the later Heidegger on language with Loazi and
the works of Derrida on writing and difference with Zhuangzi.
I offer two advanced courses in philosophy. The first, Philosophy
335, Topics in Modern European Philosophy, critically assesses two
conflicting theories of human understanding and the world by a close
reading of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (the transcendental
analytic) and Heidegger’s Being and Time (the analytic of
Dasein). The second, Philosophy 336, Topics in post-Kantian Philosophy,
involves a close reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
in relation to the “unfinished project” of modernity
(Habermas, Kolb, and Pippin) and the challenge of postmodernity
(Butler, Lyotard, and Rorty).
Selected Publications:
“Die Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung”
und die drei Hölderlin Vorlesungen (1934/35. 1941/42. 1942):
Die Heroisierung Hölderlins,” in Heidegger Handbuch,
ed. Dieter Thomä (Verlag J.B. Metzler, 2003); “Gestimmtheit,
Vorurteile, und Horizontverschmelzung,” in Wege der Hermeneutic:
Hans-Georg Gadamer zum Hundersten” eds. Jean Grondin, Günter
Figal, Dennis Schmidt (Mohr Siebeck Verlag, 2000); “Gewaltsame
Lektüren deutungslosen Zeichen: Heidegger liesst Hölderlins
‘Andenken’,” in Texte und Lekturen: Perspektiven
in der Literaturwissenschaft, ed. Aleida Assmann (Fischer Verlag,
1996); “Heidegger and the Authorization of Hölderlin’s
Poetry,” in Martin Heidegger: Politics, Art, Technology, eds.
Karsten Harries, Christoph Jamme (Holmes and Meier, 1994) [also
in German, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1992]; “Literature and Philosophy
at the Crossroads,” in Festivals of Interpretation, ed. Kathleen
Wright (SUNY, 1990); “Gadamer and the Speculative Structure
of Language,” in Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy, ed. Brice
Wachterhauser (SUNY, 1986); “Hegel: The Identity of Identity
and Non-Identity,” in Idealistic Studies 13, 1 (1983).
[For more, please see CV]
During this academic year, Kathleen Wright is on
sabbatical and will be teaching one course each semester:
Fall 2005 Course
PHIL 226 - Nietzsche (course
info / syllabus)
Spring 2006 Course
PHIL 106 - The Philosophy of Consciousness and the Problem of Embodiment
(course
info / syllabus) |
