Postmodern and Contemporary Thought

This course concerns the development of postmodern thought and its passage into the posthuman. The course begins with a brief discussion of a number of themes in Western philosophy that underlie postmodernism. Then to Jean Baudrillard’s symbolic exchange, Paul Virilio’s understanding of the effects of the technology of speed on the social. Next, we look at a discussion of capitalism and ‘virtual’ systems in the work of Deleuze and Guattari, racism in Fanon and Spivak, Derrida on the gift, Michel Foucault on art. The posthuman through Donna Haraway’s cyborgs. The course will also examine an alternate view of science, myth and philosophy in the work of Michel Serres.