Philosophy

This course examines philosophical responses to tyranny during the Nazi period, considering anti-Nazi thinkers (such as Hannah Arendt, Winthrop Bell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Albert Camus, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Gustav Hübener, Edmund Husserl, Aurel Kolnai, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Edith Stein, the White Rose) and pro-Nazi philosophers (Martin Heidegger, Carl Schmitt). We will also consider classical political philosophical critiques of tyranny, and ask whether it is legitimate to blame 19th century German philosophy and other modern philosophical tendencies for inspiring Nazism.