Since Descartes' famous decision to doubt what he could not prove, the problem of knowledge has vexed philosophy, psychology, and literature. What do we know for certain? How does this certainty (or uncertainty) relate to what we believe, what we desire, what we fear? And if all knowledge is subject to doubt, then how do we ground ourselves in the world? Do knowledge and identity depend on a metaphysical God? Do they derive from human reason or from an autonomous interiority? Or is "the self" that seeks certainty itself a misunderstanding, merely an effect of language, of history, of narrative, or of the unconscious? This course surveys the modern era's search for certainty, focusing on a few major works of European literature, raising issues that still inform our daily experience: the instability of language; the fragmentation (or multiplicity) of identity; the vicissitudes of the body; and the disruptions of love. Readings may include Descartes, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Virginia Woolf.
3-5 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
Since Descartes' famous decision to doubt what he could not prove, the problem of knowledge has vexed philosophy, psychology, and literature. What do we know for certain? How does this certainty (or uncertainty) relate to what we believe, what we desire, what we fear? And if all knowledge is subject to doubt, then how do we ground ourselves in the world? Do knowledge and identity depend on a metaphysical God? Do they derive from human reason or from an autonomous interiority? Or is "the self" that seeks certainty itself a misunderstanding, merely an effect of language, of history, of narrative, or of the unconscious? This course surveys the modern era's search for certainty, focusing on a few major works of European literature, raising issues that still inform our daily experience: the instability of language; the fragmentation (or multiplicity) of identity; the vicissitudes of the body; and the disruptions of love. Readings may include Descartes, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Virginia Woolf.