Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: CONCEPTS OF HISTORY FROM G.E. LESSING TO W. BENJAMIN

Department: German Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The twentieth-century Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce called philosophy of history (Geschichtsphilosophie) a "German discipline." There is indeed a long and rich tradition of texts in German thought that focus on making sense of the seemingly senseless, on speculating about the origin, the course, the aim, or, quite generally, the "meaning" of history. Based on selected texts by Lessing, Kant, Heine, Hegel, Nietzsche, Ranke, Burckhardt, Benjamin, and others, the course discusses different concepts of history from the early eighteenth to the twentieth century. Taught in German.