Courses in the Spotlight Spring 2025
PHIL 217-F1: Critical Theory - Eli Lichtenstein
MWF 10:20a - 11:20a
My research addresses two sets of questions. The first set of questions is methodological and concerns the relationship between history and political struggles. In my work, I explain how historical modes of inquiry can contribute to ongoing struggles for justice while still remaining critical and thereby able to revise the views of agents. The second set of questions is social-theoretic and concerns the relationship between political forms and capitalism. In particular, I try to elucidate how law, the penal system, and varied kinds of state violence are linked to capitalist domination and struggles against it. To answer these questions, I draw on 19th and 20th century European philosophy, critical philosophy of race, and philosophy of law.
Course Description:
Critical theory is a philosophical tradition that theorizes oppression and domination in order to contribute to efforts to transform the world. Philosophers in this tradition thus seek to reveal the nature of unequal power relations and to ultimately challenge the structures on which they rest. This class provides an introduction to key methods and themes in critical theory. We’ll consider methodological questions such as the nature of critique and the relationship between theory and practice. We’ll consider thematic questions such as: the epoch-defining effects of modern penal systems; the ways that colonialism causes lasting material and psychological harm; and the relationships between capitalism, ecological destruction, and racial and gender oppression. Finally, we’ll examine attendant political questions such as the possibility of resistance and the meaning of emancipation. Throughout the semester we’ll read important texts in twentieth and twenty-first century critical theory, with particular focus on major works by Michel Foucault, Frantz Fanon, and Nancy Fraser.