الربيع ٢٠٢٦، القاهرةمقرر موضوعي

Abstract Systems, Concrete Lives

Selected Readings in Modern and Contemporary Humanities

التسجيل مغلق

تفاصيل المقرر

الدورة: الربيع ٢٠٢٦، القاهرة
يبدأ: الخميس، ٣٠ أبريل
المواعيد: الخميس، ١٨:٠٠–٢٠:٣٠
المدة: ١٢ جلسة
طريقة الحضور: حضوري
لغة التدريس: الإنجليزية

ناقشه مع الذكاء الاصطناعي

اختر مساعد الذكاء الاصطناعي الذي تفضّله.
ستُفتح علامة تبويب جديدة، وستجد النص التوجيهي جاهزًا للاستخدام.
اضغط على إرسال لتبدأ استكشاف الصفحة من خلال الحوار، على طريقة سيلاس.

عن المقرر

This course examines key moments in how modern thinkers, shaped by a distinctive relation to nature, came to approach certain aspects of the human lived experience (e.g., collective life and its “ordering”) through an abstract posture influenced by modern science and its ideals. It then traces how this abstract posture was progressively questioned, opening the way to new modes of thought in the humanities attentive to concrete dimensions of the human condition. Rather than offering a comprehensive survey, the course adopts a schematic and synoptic orientation, through a series of selected readings and figures.

مَن يقدّم المقرر

Hisham Fahmy is a writer, lecturer and translator of philosophy. He graduated with a political science degree and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in philosophy. Hisham has published in both English and Arabic on issues of Islamic philosophy, political theory, and anthropology. He also has given numerous lectures on philosophy in general and political philosophy in particular – especially on the work of Carl Schmitt, Eric Voegelin, Theodor Adorno, Martin Heidegger, and Michel Foucault. He currently works as a teaching assistant of philosophy at the American University in Cairo and is a graduate of the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2018).
من زميل التدريس
Notes 1. The course is mainly offline. 2. From session 9 onward, the topics, figures, and/or readings remain open to reconsideration if the group, as a whole, sees a reason to redirect or refine them. 3. Readings are assigned as a working framework and may be updated where necessary. 4. The course relies on sustained, active engagement from all participants.

مسار المقرر

يُعرض ١٢ جلسة

أبريل ٢٠٢٦

Establishing the central themes of the course, its guiding questions, and its learning modalitiy.
Suggested reading(s): None before the session.

مايو ٢٠٢٦

An exploration of how ancient Greek thinkers approached the course's core problem, providing a conceptual background for subsequent discussions.
- Natural Science and Hermeneutics: The Concept of Nature in Ancient PhilosophyHans-Georg Gadamer, in Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, 1, 1985, pp. 39-52.
- Basic Principles of Classical Political PhilosophyLeo Strauss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
An examination of how the modern experience of nature departs from the ancient one, setting the stage for new forms of thought.
- Discourse on MethodRené Descartes. Trans. John Veitch. Illinois: La Salle, 1899. (Short selections.)
- Meditations on First PhilosophyDescartes. Trans. John Veitch. Lancaster: Lancaster University, 1901. (Short selections.)
- The Prose of John MiltonJohn Milton. New York: Anchor Books, 1967. (Short selections.)
- The Philosophy of Francis BaconBenjamin Farrington. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1964. (Short selections.)
- Mathematical Principles of Natural PhilosophyIsaac Newton. Trans. Andrew Motte. New York: Daniel Adee, 1846. (Short selections.)
An exploration of how modern abstraction in relation to our main themes takes its early form in the work of Thomas Hobbes.
- LeviathanThomas Hobbes. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1929. (Selections.)
- From Humanism to HobbesQuentin Skinner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. (Selections.)
An analysis of how abstraction becomes formalized through the rise of social sciences as a modern academic discipline.
- The Modern Social SciencesIn: Cambridge History of Sciences, eds. Theodore Porter and Dorothy Ross. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. (Selections.)

يونيو ٢٠٢٦

A discussion of how abstraction is critically problematized in Marxism and the phenomenological tradition.
- The Problem of Form: Recovery of the Concrete in Contemporary Phenomenological MarxismIan Angus, pp. 32–52, in: Marxism and Phenomenology, eds. Bryan Smith and Richard Westerman. London: Lexington Books. (Selections.)
- Institutions and PassivityMaurice Merleau-Ponty. Trans. Leonard Lawlor and Heath Massey. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2010. (Selections.)
A discussion of the concrete approach to the “political” by Carl Schmitt.
- The Concept of the Political: The Extended VersionCarl Schmitt. Trans. George Schwab. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2007. (Selections.)
- Political TheologyCarl Schmitt. Trans. George Schwab. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005. (Selections.)
An exploration of Michel Foucault’s account of power alongside his later work on ethics and technologies of the self.
- Power/KnowledgeMichel Foucault. Ed. Colin Gordon. Trans. Colin Gordon, Leo Marshall, John Mepham, and Kate Soper. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. (Selections.)
- The Birth of BiopoliticsMichel Foucault. Ed. Michel Senellart. Trans. Burchell. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. (Selections.)
- Technologies of the SelfMichel Foucault. Eds. Huck Gutman, Patrick Hutton and Luther Martin. Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. (Selections.)
An exploration of feminist interventions in the “humanities,” focusing on the work of Judith Butler.
- Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist TheoryJudith Butler. Theater Journal, Vol. 40(4), 1988, pp. 519–531. (Selections.)
- Gender TroubleJudith Butler. New York and London: Routledge, 1999. (Selections.)

يوليو ٢٠٢٦

An inquiry into narrative and voice as concrete modes beyond abstraction.
- Relating NarrativesAdriana Cavarero. Trans. Paul Kottman. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. (Selections.)
- For More Than One VoiceAdriana Cavarero. Trans. Paul Kottman. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. (Selections.)
A discussion of how art becomes a center for attention in the “concrete turn” on which the course has been focusing thus far.
- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ReproductionWalter Benjamin, in: Illuminations, Ed. Hanna Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
This is a session to be used either as a concluding session, or as an extra session, if the group decides to a.) expand on any of the themes, b.) add another theme, or c.) perform a certain class activity [e.g., a revision session, a writing session, watching a film, etc.]
Suggested reading(s): To be Decided.