Can you live ethically without following moral norms, that is, norms as these are given institutionally and reinforced by culture and/or convention? The question, which is at least as old as the Cynics, gathered steam again in the nineteenth century starting with Nietzsche, and it remains a vital problem today. Paradoxical though it may seem, some of the staunchest critics of moral systems and moral norms are at the same time powerful advocates of non-normative ethical reflection and action. This course will examine this phenomenon through close study.

The ancient Greek Cynics invented free speech and the concept of cosmopolitanism. They also gave birth to a form of critique and protest that lands somewhere between ethics, politics, and the overturning of social norms through scandalous public displays in which “nature” is pitted against “culture.” The Cynic inheritance persists into modernity as a living tradition in literature and theory (Rabelais, Montaigne, Diderot, Nietzsche, Sloterdijk, Foucault) and as a performative tradition of public protest (the Situationist International; the Free Speech Movement; Occupy Wall Street; guerilla protest art, including Banksy) and performance art (Petr Pavlensky; Marina Abramović; and others). The course has two aims: (i) to introduce students to the Cynic lineage from antiquity to its most recent expressions; and (ii) to explore the explosive nature of a tradition that is grounded in forms of praxis that elude capture in theory. The course is not for the faint of heart. But it is designed for students who are willing to interrogate the difficult line between ethics and politics, and the possibilities for the transgression of both in the historical past and in the contemporary present. Readings to include selections from the following: Plato’s Symposium and Apology; an anthology of sayings by the ancient Cynics; early Christian avatars; Renaissance Cynicism; Diderot, Rameau’s Nephew; Nietzsche; Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle; Sloterdijk, Critique of Cynical Reason; Foucault, The Politics of Truth; The Courage of the Truth; Arendt, The Human Condition; “Truth and Politics”; J. Butler, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly; Descola, Beyond Nature and Culture; Berlant, On the Inconvenience of Other People; L. Gandhi, The Common Cause: Postcolonial Ethics and the Practice of Democracy; various writings on the history and theory of free speech and dissident speech.

Repeat Rules