GERMAN ACROSS THE CURRICULUM (GAC)
In several philosophy courses, students who can read the original texts in German have the opportunity of addressing special units of instruction that focus upon the philosophical issues involved in translating from German to English. For example, instead of composing an essay about a philosopher’s theory, such students can examine the English translations in terms of how well they serve to convey the philosopher’s theory to an English-speaking audience. It’s not uncommon to find English translations variably lose connotations from the original German or gain connotations in English that are not present in the German. Such translation issues are often very illuminating about the fundamental concepts in terms of which a philosopher articulates their theories. By examining such translation issues, students exercise and test their knowledge of both philosophy and German, combining them in instructional activities characteristic of graduate programs that support scholarship in the original language. The department will provide the original German texts to students on a case-by-case basis. Moreover, the Philosophy Department will work closely with faculty in the German Department to support such instruction, particularly for students doing their Senior Individualized Project in German and philosophy.
The following are examples of courses that support such ambidextrous units of scholarship, along with associated philosophical figures:
- 19th-Century Philosophy:
- Immanuel Kant
- Friedrich Schiller
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Karl Marx
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Critical Social Theory:
- Max Horkheimer
- Theodor Adorno
- Herbert Marcuse
- Hannah Arendt
- Karl Otto Apel
- Jürgen Habermas
- Axel Honneth
- Martin Seel
- Philosophy of Art:
- Immanuel Kant
- Friedrich Schiller
- Martin Heidegger
- Martin Seel
- Christoph Menke
- Philosophy of Language:
- Gottlob Frege
- Karl Otto Apel
- Jürgen Habbermas
- Existentialism:
- Martin Heidegger
- Martin Seel