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Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

Code: 100300 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Philosophy OB 3

Contact

Name:
Jesus Adrian Escudero
Email:
jesus.adrian@uab.cat

Teachers

Laura Benitez Valero

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites.


Objectives and Contextualisation

This course provides an introduction to phenomenology and hermeneutics, two fundamental philosophical currents of the twentieth century whose influence remains significant in twenty-first-century thought.

Main objectives:

  1. Understand the foundations of phenomenology and hermeneutics.

  2. Analyse key philosophical texts and develop critical interpretive skills.

  3. Relate phenomenological and hermeneutic theories to other fields of knowledge.

  4. Foster reflection on human experience and meaning.


Competences

  • Act within one's own area of knowledge, evaluating sex/gender-based inequalities.
  • Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Placing the most representative philosophical ideas and arguments of a period in their historical background and relating the most important authors of each period of any philosophical discipline.
  • Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.
  • Using the symbology and procedures of the formal sciences in the analysis and building of arguments.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Applying philosophical rigour in a written text following the international quality standards.
  2. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  3. Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  4. Communicate by making non-sexist, non-discriminatory use of language.
  5. Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  6. Distinguishing and analysing representative texts of the main genres of the philosophical literature.
  7. Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
  8. Distinguishing the topics of philosophical relevance in current debates.
  9. Documenting a philosophical issue and contrasting its sources.
  10. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  11. Explaining aspects of the history of science by using the discipline's specific terminology.
  12. Explaining the specific notions of the History of Philosophy.
  13. Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
  14. Indicating and discussing the main characteristics of the distinctive thought of a period and contextualizing them.
  15. Indicating and summarising the common content of several manifestations of various fields of culture.
  16. Organizing their own time and work resources: designing plans with priorities of objectives, calendars and action commitments.
  17. Producing a philosophical work of analysis of relevant aspects of contemporary culture that includes an assessment of its value.
  18. Reading thoroughly philosophical texts of the History of Philosophy.
  19. Recognise and define the common thinking present in a multidisciplinary context.
  20. Recognising, with a critical eye, philosophical referents of the past and present and assessing its importance.
  21. Relating several ideas of the current philosophical debates.
  22. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  23. Rigorously building philosophical arguments.
  24. Solving problems autonomously.
  25. Summarising the topics and arguments exposed in a classical philosophical debate.
  26. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.

Content

1. Introduction

1.1 Contemporary Trends in Philosophy

1.2 Contemporary Theories of Ipseity

2. Phenomenological Approach

2.1 The Self as Lived Experience (Husserl)

2.2 The Self and Corporality (Merleau-Ponty)

2.3 The Question of Otherness (Sartre and Levinas)

2.4 The Hermeneutic Turn of Phenomenology (Heidegger)

3. Hermeneutic Approach

3.1 Care of the Self and Others (Heidegger)

3.2 The Self as Narrative (Ricœur)

3.3 The Self as Text (Gadamer)

3.4 The Hermeneutics of the Subject (Foucault)

4. Current Applications

4.1 Butler: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, and Performativity

4.2 Ahmed: Queer Phenomenology

4.3 Phenomenology and Enactivism

4.4 Postphenomenology

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures and class discussions 50 2 23, 8, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 21, 25
Type: Autonomous      
Text readings 92.5 3.7 2, 23, 8, 6, 7, 9, 17, 10, 12, 5, 3, 26, 13, 14, 18, 16, 20, 21, 24, 25

The subject combines lectures with seminar sessions and class discussion of the main readings of the course. Students actively participate in the analysis of the texts and in the learning process.

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Reading report 20% 2.5 0.1 1, 15, 2, 4, 23, 8, 6, 7, 9, 17, 10, 12, 5, 26, 13, 14, 18, 20, 19, 21, 24, 25
Written test 1 40% 2.5 0.1 1, 2, 4, 23, 8, 7, 10, 11, 12, 5, 3, 26, 14, 18, 16, 20, 21, 22, 25
Written test 2 40% 2.5 0.1 2, 23, 8, 7, 10, 12, 5, 26, 13, 14, 18, 16, 20, 21, 25

The continuous assessment system consists of:

  1. Two partial exams (80%)

  2. One reading report (20%)

Single assessment

The single assessment will consist of an exam with two parts corresponding to the two blocks (80%) and a written paper of 2000-2500 words (20%) on a topic chosen in agreement with the professor, which must be submitted on the same day as the exam.

Make-up assessment

To participate in the make-up assessment, students must have previously been assessed in a set of activities whose weight corresponds to at least two-thirds of the total grade (CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT) or must have submitted all the scheduled tests (SINGLE ASSESSMENT).

At the time of each assessment activity, the teaching staff will inform students (via Moodle) of the procedure and the date for grade review.

Students will receive the grade “Not assessable” if they have failed to submit more than one-third of the assessment activities.

If a student commits any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment event, that assessment will be graded as 0, regardless of any disciplinary process that may be initiated. If multiple irregularities occur in the assessments of the same subject, the final grade for that subject will be 0.

Use of AI

Model 2 - Restricted use: For this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is allowed exclusively in support tasks, such as bibliographic or information search, proofreading or translations.Students will have to clearly identify which parts have been generated with this technology, specify the tools used and include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and the final result of the activity, as well as the link and all the corresponding prompts. Non-transparency of the use of AI in this assessable activity will be considered academic dishonesty and may lead to a partial or total penalty in the grade of the activity, or higher penalties in serious cases.

 

Additional information regarding assessment:

The Department of Philosophy agreed that the first-semester students would have two periods dedicated to assessment activities and one week during which students could specifically prepare for the exams, in the format that each instructor will specify at the beginning of the course. The dates for the review week and the assessment periods are:

  • October 27 – October 31: review or tutorial week
  • November 3 – November 7: assessment week
  • January 8, 9, 12, 13, 14: assessment week

Bibliography

Mandatory readings:

Ahmed, Sara. 2006. Queer Phenomenology. Orientations, objects, others. Durham: Duke University Press.

Butler, Judith. 1997. Excitable Speech. A politics of the performative. New York / London: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel. 2005. La hermenéutica del sujeto (1982). Barcelona: Akal.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1977. Verdad y método (1960). Salamanca: Sígueme.

Heidegger, Martin. 2023. Ser y tiempo (1927). Madrid: Trotta.

__.  El concepto de tiempo (1924). Herder, Barcelona.

Husserl, Edmund. 1985. Ideas relativas a una fenomenología pura y una filosofía fenomenológica (1913). Madrid,: Alianza editorial.

__. La crisis de las ciencias europeas (1935). Madrid: Crítica

__. Invitación a la fenomenología. Barcelona:  Paidós Studio.

__. Lecciones de fenomenología de la conciencia interna del tiempo (1905). Madrid: Trotta.

 __. La idea de la fenomenología (1950). Barcelona: Herder.

Ihde, John. 2015. Postfenomenología y Tecnociencia. Barcelona: Plataforma Editorial Sello AG.

Levinas, Emmanuel. 2002. Totalidad e infinito. Ensayo sobre la exterioridad (1961). Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1993. Fenomenología de la percepción (1945). Barcelona: Planeta de Agostini.

Ricoeur, Paul. 2003. El conflicto de las interpretaciones. Buenos Aires: F.C.E.

__. Sí mismo como otro (1990). Barcelona: Siglo XXI.

__. Tiempo y narración. III. El tiempo narrado (1985). Madrid: Trota. 

Sartre, Jean-Paul. 2005. El ser y la nada (1943). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

Additional readings:

García-Baró, Miguel. 2015. Husserl y Gadamer. Fenomenología y hermenéutica. Barcelona: Emse Publishing.

Grondin, Jean. 2008. ¿Qué es la hermenéutica? Barcelona: Herder.

Dilthey, Wilhelm. 200o. «El surgimiento de la hermenéutica» (1900). En Dos escritos sobre hermenéutica. Madrid: Istmo, pp. 21-80.

Moran, Dermot. 2011. Introducción a la fenomenología. Rubí (Barcelona): Anthropos.

Zahavi, Dan. 2003. Husserl's Phenomenology. Standfor: Standfor University Press

Note: A more extensive and detailed bibliography will be presented on the first day of class. Throughout the course sessions, the specific sections of each reading to be studied will be indicated, with the aim of facilitating their understanding and critical analysis.


Software

No special software required


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed