Contacts

Undergraduate Menu

Current Course Descriptions

Why German?

Learning German can increase your earning potential astronomically! 

20140315 woc491

Click here to learn more about the many benefits of studying German.

Undergraduate Quicklinks

Course Descriptions

470:135 & 470:301 Certainty In Uncertain Times: Über Gewißheit

  • Semester(s) Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer
  • Credits: 3
  • Language of Instruction: German

Kevin Wiesehahn

Certainty in Uncertain Times: Über Gewißheit

Fall 2025, meeting times by arrangement with instructor.

Course taught in the two following sections that meet together but that have distinct prerequisites and assignments, and that fulfill distinct requirements. Students who have completed Intermediate German 132 are normally expected to enroll in section 470:301.

01:470:135 German Conversation & Composition

01:470:301 Introduction to Lit. & Cult. Analysis
  •  Prerequisite: successful prior completion of German 102 (or the equivalent). Does not fulfill any prerequisites for courses in the German-language track or language requirements for the German major or minor. Not open to students who are either currently enrolled in Advanced German 231 or who have completed or placed out of the Advanced German level. These students should sign up for the companion section 01:470:301 Introduction to Lit. & Cult. Analysis.
  • No Core credits.
  • Does count toward credit in the German "literature" and "philosophy" concentrations.
  •  Prerequisite: simultaneous enrollment in German 231, or prior completion of German 232 or the equivalent.
  • Core credits AHp & WCd
  • Counts toward advanced language credit and toward the German major's and minor's "literature" and "philosophy" concentrations.

Meeting times to be arranged at start of semester to accommodate students’ schedules, in coordination with the instructor.

Description:

This course addresses a defining question of Western philosophy from the unprecedented perspective of our times. How do we know what we know? Can we really be so sure? And what is that, anyway: being certain?  Each week we will dedicate one session to a sequential reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s groundbreaking yet surprisingly accessible work Über Gewißheit, and the other session to a close examination of a shorter text or film from visionary thinkers of uncertainty: Heinrich von Kleist, G.W.F. Hegel, Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Haneke, and more. The course is hybrid in nature: it is as much a literature course intended to provoke critical thought as it is a language course intended to broaden and strengthen one’s knowledge of German.

 

Readings and screenings will be in German, with discussions conducted primarily in German. The instructor will work with students to help them through the texts and ensure that students are not overwhelmed!