This is the preliminary home page for Philosophy 442/542, Phenomenology, which will be taught in the Spring semester of 2012 by Professor Ron McClamrock of the University at Albany Department of Philosophy.

There’s a copy of the course syllabus available here from the last time I taught this course. I expect some minor changes, but no major overhaul of the course this time.

If you have questions about the site or the course, please e-mail me at ron at albany dot edu.

Course Description

This course examines the historical and conceptual development of phenomenology in the 20th century, starting with Husserl’s “presuppositionless and purely descriptive science of the structures of consciousness”, and including works by Sartre, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. We’ll emphasize (a) the idea of a presuppositionless account of consciousness; (b) the motivations for and nature of the “existential turn”, and (c) connections between phenomenology and both analytic philosophy and scientific psychology.