This is a two-page BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION (ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE RESOURCES SECTION IN PDF FORM):

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HIEU 5062: Philosophy and Theory of History                             Spring Semester 2017 UVA

Wednesdays 6:00-8:30 p.m., New Cabell 415.                                  Last offered in fall 2015

Revision of Dec. 9, 2016. ver4.

COURSE DESCRIPTION IN BRIEF[*]

Instructor: Allan Megill megill@virginia.edu; office at 434 NAU. Questions? E-mail the instructor.Instructor faculty page: http://history.as.virginia.edu/people/adm9e

Academia.edu site: https://virginia.academia.edu (This site contains some course-relevant documents, especially under the “Teaching Documents tab.)

Office hours: TuTh 3:40-4:50, and by arrangement. It is best to e-mail me ahead of time about appointments, since sometimes other commitments override these hours.

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This class offers an introduction to the currently vibrant field of the philosophy and theory of history, while at the same time giving students the opportunity to write a seminar-type paper with some guidance and supervision from the instructor. The paper is to be on a topic discovered by the student and approved after serious consultation with the instructor. The topic must have some relevance to the understanding and representing of past realities of whatever sort (e.g., social, political, philosophical, ideological, aesthetic, textual).

In our week-to-week sessions the emphasis will be less on surveying the past and present of the philosophy and theory of history than on drawing resources from that tradition to help us think about current problems in the apprehension and representation of “history.” Many philosophers, social scientists, and historians have contributed to this field. These include such names as Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Windelband, Heinrich Rickert, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Halbwachs, Benedetto Croce, Carl Hempel, R. G. Collingwood, Arthur Danto, Louis Mink, Reinhart Koselleck, Paul Ricoeur, Hayden White, Dominick LaCapra, Frank Ankersmit, Berber Bevernage, and Paul A. Roth. Most of these scholars are not “well-known”; a few are.

The class is intended both for qualified third- and fourth-year undergraduates and for graduate or law students. In addition, it has often been attended by visiting scholars from other countries. Their presence has often added much to the course.

If you are an undergraduate, it is best if your attention has been caught by one or two previous history classes. Theory of history will be opaque unless you have some experience with its object, “history.” Central to the class is the writing of a term paper of somewhat larger dimensions than is possible in most undergraduate classes. The range of possible topics is wide. If you are thinking about the class, you should ideally contact me before classes start, and we can discuss possibilities. My hope is that the seminar paper requirement will be useful to you by, for example, contributing (with the permission of both instructors) to a senior thesis or other project, or by giving you something to use as a “writing sample” after graduation.

If you are a graduate student, your time for completing your studies is limited. Accordingly, in all classes you need to craft your research/writing so that it will contribute maximally to your progress in your program. A preliminary meeting with me—ideally before the first class—would be helpful to this end, so you can start thinking about possible topics or angles. I should note that, over the years, I have learned much from the presence of graduate students from a very wide variety of fields in this class and in its predecessors.

Resources for writing: I am aware of the challenges that students face with academic writing. I shall provide several documents intended to help in conceptualizing and working up papers. We shall also devote parts of some class sessions to this issue.

Course Requirements in Brief: 1. Do the assigned reading before class. 2. On occasion, write up a brief [500-word] mini-paper and/or write up a discussion summary (“Protokoll”) (I anticipate a maximum of five such exercises from each student over the course of the semester). 3.Contribute to discussion, sometimes by “introducing” part of the week’s reading. 4. Write a 20–25 double-spaced pages paper on a topic mutually agreed upon by student and instructor.

CLASS BOOKS (ALL WILL BE ON RESERVE) [UVA Bookstore new/used prices listed, to allow comparison shopping]:

Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984 [1983]). $25.50/$18.39

Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life, trans. Peter Preuss, (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1980) NOTE: There are some really bad translations of this work in existence. Preuss’s translation is reasonably good, although nothing can substitute for Nietzsche’s German. Do not fall victim to a bad translation. $9.50/$6.71

Berber Bevernage, History, Memory, and State-Sponsored Violence: Time and Justice (New York: Routledge, 2013 [2012]). $43.95/$33.00

Allan Megill, Historical Knowledge, Historical Error (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). $32.00/$24.00

We shall probably read the following books, but you are not required to buy them: Hayden White, The Practical Past (Northwestern University Press, 2014); Jouni-Matte Kuukkanen, Postnarrativist Philosophy of Historiography (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); and Martin L. Davies, How History Works: The Reconstitution of a Human Science (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Much of our reading will be of articles available on PDF. There will also be some reading of items that are as yet unpublished. The later class periods will be devoted in significant part to the discussion of paper proposals and drafts.

There are additional UVa-only syllabus items for this course. Click here to view all the public and UVa-only syllabus items. This link is restricted to UVa-members with Netbadge authentication.