This online program offers an intensive engagement with Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy through close reading primarily of his Critique of Pure Reason and supplemented by excerpts from other works. Our central questions will be Kant’s: what are the conditions of possibility for knowledge, what are the limits of knowledge, and how does it relate to our other faculties (morality, judgment, imagination)? Our goals will be to trace his arguments and map his terms, learn to navigate challenging historical texts and sharpen our own analytical and interpretive skills. Students will learn to work with primary philosophical texts (in translation), to analyze complex arguments, to write clearly about difficult ideas, and to situate their own thinking in relation to a key figure in the history of philosophy. Kant’s critical system marks a turning point in the history of philosophy, and his work is crucial to understanding idealism, materialism, poststructuralism, and 20th and 21st century projects in critical theory.

The program is structured around twelve synchronous hours and three asynchronous hours of work each week. Our synchronous sessions will be devoted to collaborative close reading, philosophical discussion, and working through Kant's intricate argumentation together. Students will form dialogue partnerships as well as intellectual salons and study groups for sustained collective inquiry. The program will attend (virtually or in person as you are able) the Art Lecture Series as part of our work on aesthetics and the philosophy of art. The asynchronous component will add audio and video lectures, directed reflection, research, and writing.

Students will maintain thorough notebooks (including a succinct and evolving list of Kantian terminology, they will write short analytical papers, and will host and participate in discussion and salons. The class will conclude on either a short research paper or a creative project relating Kant’s critical system to students’ research.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

8 - Philosophy: Epistemology and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
6 - Philosophy: Analysis, Writing Intensive
2 - Individual Projects (variable)