Course Description / Course Readings / Course Requirements  

SCHEDULE: January / February / March / April

Course Description

In the history of Western thought, there is an ongoing tradition of asking whether the fact of human suffering, or of evil in the world, can be compatible with the existence of a benevolent God.  As Philo puts the problem in Hume's Dialogues: "Epicurus's old questions are yet unanswered. Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?"  The first part of this course will look at some ways that the question of God's existence has been linked with that of the presence of suffering and evil--exploring the theme of "theodicy" in writings by Freud, Hume, and Kant.  In the second part, we will turn to Philo's third question: the origin of evil.  Is a concept of evil necessary for an understanding of morality?  After studying this question by reading further in Kant, we will turn to a specifically post-Holocaust confrontation with the question of evil by looking at Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem.

Course Readings

You can generally obtain these in a number of ways - see details for each title on the syllabus.

• Books for this course have been ordered with Titles (visit the "Tank": TSH B203)
• All the readings are also on reserve at Mills Library. Check on the status of a title via the MORRIS online catalogue, or look up the reserve list for the class at one of the MORRIS stations in the library.   
• A coursepack containing some readings for March 19 and after is available from the bookstore.  However, since it is much cheaper to make personal copies of readings from the books on reserve than to buy the coursepack (whose price includes a hefty copyright fee that the bookstore is obliged to pay), I encourage you to do the former.  Only a limited number of coursepacks has been ordered in advance; if they are no longer in stock, you can order one on a "raincheck" basis.

At times you may be asked to consult or make your own copy from a book on reserve.

You must have your own copy of all the texts to be discussed--with the same pagination as the edition selected for the class--whether in book or xeroxed form, and be prepared to refer to specific passages in class.

Course Requirements

• Take-Home Quizzes on the reading will be assigned approximately every 1-2 weeks and should be handed in at the end of the class session on the day they are due (no late submissions will be accepted). Their purpose is to encourage you to read carefully and reflect on issues that come up in the reading, so that you are in a position to participate knowledgeably and actively in class. These assignments are ungraded; a certain number will be selected at random each week to receive detailed feedback. You can expect to receive feedback on at least two quizzes in the course of the semester. Your overall grade for the quizzes will be based on whether you completed all of them and on the quality of the two that have been selected to read. Please keep all the quizzes that are returned to you--with or without comments--for your reference and in case we ask to see them again later in the term. 

In preparing this and other written assignments, you are encouraged to use the resources of the Writing Clinic on campus.

• Attendance is mandatory, since participating in in-class work is crucial to successful completion of this course. Participation includes: reading the material carefully ahead of time and raising points and questions about it in class, taking part in in-class group assignments, communicating with the instructor and TA outside of class, etc. (If you need to be absent from a class session, please notify one of us, preferably by e-mail, and be sure to ask one a classmate to fill you in on what you missed.)

• Midterm Exam

• Final Exam

Grades are based on Take-Home Quizzes (25%), Attendance/Participation (20%), Midterm Exam (25%), Final Exam (30%).  Failure to write either of the two examinations, or 8 unexcused absences from class, constitute sufficient grounds for earning an "F" in the class.

McMaster University has a strict policy concerning Academic Dishonesty.  Please familiarize yourself with the Statement on Academic Ethics and the Senate Resolutions on Academic Dishonesty.

You are advised to retain copies of any written work you submit for this class, and all your research notes, until you have received an official grade.

January 6-22

INTRODUCTION

FREUD: The Value of Religious Ideas 

Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (1927) [book available for purchase/on reserve], I, II, III, VI, VII, VIII

Take-Home Quiz 1 due in class January 13.

January 27, 29, February 3

HUME: God and Theodicy I

David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779) [book available for purchase/on reserve]

• for background on the Dialogues, read "Pamphilus and Hermippus"; Part II: Demea on anthropomorphism (pp. 13-14), Cleanthes' "design argument" (p. 15)
• Parts X and XI

Take-Home Quiz 2 due in class January 22 or January 27

February 5, 10, 12, 24

KANT: God and Theodicy II

Immanuel Kant, "On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy" (1791), trans. George di Giovanni, in Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and Other Writings [book available for purchase/on reserve]: read up to p. 26 (i.e., skip the "Concluding Remark").  See facsimile of German original from the Berlinische Monatsschrift here.

Take-Home Quiz 3/3A due in class on February 5 or February 10.

Supplementary: 

• Book of Job
• Michel Despland's alternative translation of Kant's essay can be found under the title "On the Failure of All Attempted Philosophical Theodicies" in Despland, Kant on History and Religion (1973) [book on reserve]: pp. 283-97 
• for background on Kant's views on God and morality see Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788), trans. Mary Gregor, in Kant, Practical Philosophy [book on reserve]: pp. 236-55.  German edition here.
• Emil Fackenheim, "Kant's Philosophy of Religion" (1985) in The God Within [book on reserve]

February 26 and March 3

MIDTERM EXAM  

See Midterm Preparation Sheet for details.

March 5

KANT: Good and Evil

Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), trans. James W. Ellington [book available for purchase/on reserve], First Section: 

• marginal pages 393-94 ("...to determine its value")
• 397 (the definition of duty) (optional: read what follows about the examples)
• 399 ("The second proposition...") - 404 top ("...as the standard of judgment")

from Grounding, Second Section:

• 413, 2nd paragraph ("All imperatives are expressed...") - 415, 1st paragraph ("...apodeictic practical principle")
• 428, 2nd complete paragraph ("Now I say that man,...) - 429 ("...carried out in practice) (optional: read what follows about the examples)
• optional: 432 ("When we look back...") - 433 ("...as ends and means")

March 10, 12, 17

KANT: Good and Evil, cont'd

Immanuel Kant, Part One of Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1792/1793), trans. George di Giovanni [book available for purchase/on reserve]: 45-56 middle (no need to dwell on the footnotes); 57 ("Now the ground...") - 60 middle of first paragraph ("...the sole incentive"); 61-65 (i.e., read all of section IV).

Part One was originally published as a standalone article entitled "On Radical Evil in Human Nature" in the Berlinische Monatsschrift. See facsimile here.

Take-Home Quiz 4 due in class on March 10 or 12

Supplementary:

• there is an older translation of this book entitled Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, trans. Greene/Hudson (1934) [book on reserve]
• Emil Fackenheim, "Kant and Radical Evil" (1953) in The God Within [book on reserve]

March 19

Two Holocaust Trials: Nuremberg and Eichmann

Andrew Altman, Arguing About Law. An Introduction to Legal Philosophy (1996): "Judgment at Nuremberg," 23-29 [copy on reserve / included in coursepack]

Howard Ball, Prosecuting War Crimes and Genocide (1999), chap. 2: "World War II in Europe and the Nuremberg Tribunal," esp. 44-61 [book on reserve; included in coursepack]

Nuremberg Trial Proceedings: Charter of the International Military Tribunal (on the Avalon Project website at Yale Law School)

Lawrence Douglas, The Memory of Judgment. Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust (2001), chap 2: "The Idiom of Judgment: Crimes Against Humanity" [book on reserve;  included in coursepack]

Additional Resources:

• The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Website of the Avalon Project at Yale Law School.

Take-Home Quiz 5 due in class today.

March 24-26

finish discussion of Ball and Douglas articles on the Nuremberg trials

ARENDT: Eichmann and Evil

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963) [purchase book / different edition on reserve - Since the pagination of the reserve copy differs from that of the one available for purchase, you do need to buy the book in this one instance.]: chap. 1: "The House of Justice"; chap. 3: "An Expert on the Jewish Question"; chap. 6: "The Final Solution: Killing" (SKIP pp. 98-105 top)

Optional Take-Home Quiz 6 due in class on March 26. 

Supplementary:

• Text of the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law under which Eichmann was tried.
• Lawrence Douglas, The Memory of Judgment, Part 2: "Eichmann," esp. 173-82 [pp. 173-82 included in coursepack; book on reserve]
• Susan Neiman,* Evil in Modern Thought. An Alternative History of Philosophy (2002) [book on reserve]  

March 31, April 2, April 7

Arendt, chap. 7: "The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate"; chap. 15: "Judgment, Appeal, and Execution," pp. 249-52; "Epilogue"; "Postscript" (3/28/03 Note: the pagination of the reserve copy of the Arendt differs from that of the one available for purchase.  So in this one instance, you do need to buy the book.)

"Eichmann in Jerusalem: An Exchange of Letters between Gershom Scholem and Hannah Arendt" (1963) in Arendt, The Jew as Pariah, ed. Ron Feldman (1978) [copy in coursepack; book on reserve]

Take-Home Quiz 7/7A due in class on March 31 or April 2.

*Exciting News: Professor Susan Neiman (Einstein Forum, Potsdam, Germany) has accepted an invitation from the Department of Religious Studies to visit McMaster as a Hooker Visiting Professor in October 2003!

Additional Resources:

• Material on Adolf Eichmann compiled by the Nizkor Project, including complete transcripts of the Eichmann trial.
• The Hannah Arendt Papers at the Library of Congress, including materials collected in an "Adolf Eichmann file."

FINAL EXAM  

Monday, April 14, 2:00 p.m., in Convocation Hall, University Hall.  The final exam will consist of two essay questions.  See Final Exam Preparation Sheet.

There will be an optional review session on Wednesday, April 9, 10:00 a.m. (for 1-2 hours, as needed) at University Hall 103.

  Copyright © 2003 Dana Hollander