Curtis Bowman

Another cog in the culture industry

Curriculum Vitae

Education

University of Pennsylvania, 1986-1993; Ph.D. in Philosophy, May 1993

University of Munich, 1989-1990 (Philosophy)

Goethe Institute in Murnau, Germany, Summer 1988

German Summer School in Taos, New Mexico, Summer 1986

University of Texas at Austin, 1985-1986 (Philosophy Graduate Program)

University of Texas at Austin, 1981-1985; B.A. in Liberal Arts with High Honors (and Special Honors in Philosophy), May 1985

Academic Employment

Independent Scholar, 2003 to the present

Haverford College, Visiting Assistant Professor, 2002-2003

Bryn Mawr College, Lecturer, 1999-2002

University of Pennsylvania, Lecturer, 1993-2002

La Salle University, Adjunct Professor, 1993-1995

Areas of Specialization

German Philosophy from Kant to Nietzsche, 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Aesthetics

Areas of Competence

Early Modern Philosophy, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Existentialism

Publications

I. Book

Dialectic of Enlightenment: A Reader's Guide. (This is a work in progress to be published by Routledge. Some of the basic ideas of my commentary can be found in this online lecture.)

II. Essays

Spanish version of "A Deduction of Kant's Concept of the Highest Good": "Una deducción del concepto de sumo bien kantiano," translated by Ernesto Aguilar Martínez, Signos Filosóficos 15 (Enero-Junio, 2013): 195-222. [Download as PDF, 160 KB.]

"Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge," in John Shand (ed.), Central Works of Philosophy (Volume 3: The Nineteenth Century). Acumen Publishing Limited, 2005. Pp. 43-68.

"A Deduction of Kant's Concept of the Highest Good," Journal of Philosophical Research 28 (2003): 45-63. [Download as PDF, 65 KB.]

"Heidegger, the Uncanny, and Jacques Tourneur's Horror Films," in Steven Jay Schneider and Daniel Shaw (eds.), Dark Thoughts: Philosophic Reflections On Cinematic Horror. Scarecrow Press, 2003. Pp. 65-83. [Download as PDF, 40 KB.]

"A film without politics: Georges Franju's Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face, 1959)," Kinoeye 2.13 (9 September 2002) <http://www.kinoeye.org/02/13/bowman13.php>. [Download as PDF, 187 KB.]

"Fichte, Jacobi, and the Atheism Controversy," in D. Breazeale and T. Rockmore (eds.), New Essays on Fichte's Later Jena Wissenschaftslehre. Northwestern University Press, 2002. Pp. 279-298.

"Jacobi's Philosophy of Faith and Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre 1794/95," in D. Breazeale and T. Rockmore (eds.), New Studies in Fichte's Foundations of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre. Humanity Books, 2001. Pp. 210-226.

"Speech and Phenomena on Expression and Indication: Derrida's Dual Critique of Husserl's Demand for Apodictic Evidence and the Phenomenological Reduction," International Studies in Philosophy 31 (1999): 1-21. [Download as PDF, 3.7 MB.]

III. Translations

Richard Wagner, Opera and Drama, translated, edited, and annotated by Curtis Bowman. (This is a work in progress to be published by Routledge.)

Moses Mendelssohn: Writings on Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible, edited by Michah Gottlieb, translated by Curtis Bowman, Elias Sacks, and Allan Arkush. Brandeis University Press, 2011.

J. G. Fichte and the Atheism Dispute (1798-1800), edited by Yolanda Estes and Curtis Bowman, translated by Curtis Bowman, introduced and annotated by Yolanda Estes. Ashgate Publishing, 2010. Routledge, 2020.

Notes and Fragments, Volume 13, The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant, edited by Paul Guyer, translated by Curtis Bowman, Paul Guyer, and Frederick Rauscher. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, "Description of the Torso in the Belvedere in Rome" and "Essay on the Capacity for the Sentiment for the Beautiful in Art, and on Instruction in it," in Essays on the Philosophy and History of Art, 3 vols., edited by Curtis Bowman. Thoemmes Press, 2001. Volume 1, pp. xiii-xviii, xix-xlvii.

Three 18th century German reviews of David Hume's work, in James Fieser (ed.), Early Responses to Hume's Writings on Religion. Thoemmes Press, 2001.

Two 18th century German reviews of David Hume's work, in James Fieser (ed.), Early Responses to Hume's Metaphysical and Epistemological Writings. Thoemmes Press, 2000.

IV. Introductions

Introduction to Moses Mendelssohn, Phaedon; or, The Death of Socrates. Thoemmes Continuum, 2004. Pp. v-xviii.

Introduction to Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Essays on the Philosophy and History of Art, 3 vols. Thoemmes Press, 2001. Volume 1, pp. v-x.

V. Encyclopedia and Guidebook Entries

Kiss of Death and Gun Crazy, in Steven Jay Schneider (General Editor), 101 Gangster Movies You Must See Before You Die. Barron's, 2009.

Häxan, in Steven Jay Schneider (Editor), 100 European Horror Films. BFI, 2007.

"William Smith" [Fichte biographer & translator], in W. J. Mander and A. P. F. Sell (Senior Editors), Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers. Thoemmes Press, 2002.

"Johann Gottlieb Fichte," in James Fieser (General Editor), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

"Karl Philipp Moritz," in Michael Kelly (Editor in Chief), Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, 4 vols. Oxford University Press, 1998. Volume 3, pp. 295-296.

VI. Reviews

Simon Blackburn, Truth: A Guide (Oxford University Press, 2005). Reviewed in Other Voices 4.1 (March 2010) <http://www.othervoices.org/4.1/cbowman/>. [Download as PDF, 14 KB.]

Marc Bousquet, How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation (New York University Press, 2008). Reviewed on my blog: <http://bowman.typepad.com/cubowman/2008/09/how-the-university-works.html>.

Nicholas Royle, The Uncanny (Routledge, 2003). Reviewed in Other Voices 3.1 (May 2007) <http://www.othervoices.org/3.1/cbowman/>.

Robert Warshow, The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics, Theatre and Other Aspects of Popular Culture (Harvard University Press, 2001). Reviewed in Other Voices 2.3 (January 2005) <http://www.othervoices.org/2.3/cbowman/>.

Brigitte Sassen (ed. and tr.), Kant's Early Critics (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Reviewed in Journal of the History of Philosophy 39 (2001): 447-448.

Moses Mendelssohn, Philosophical Writings, ed. and tr. by Daniel Dahlstrom (Cambridge University Press, 1997). Reviewed in New Athenaeum/Neues Athenaeum 6 (2001): 217-226.

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, The Main Philosophical Writings and the Novel 'Allwill', ed. and tr. by George di Giovanni (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994). Reviewed in The Review of Metaphysics 50 (1996): 161-162.

Review (in German) (PDF, 1.3 MB) of the Reclam edition of Immanuel Kant's Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik, die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können. In Hochschule für Politik-Zeitung, Munich, Winter Semester 89/90. (Click on this link for the story of how I came to write this review, that is, the explanation of why my first publication was in German.)

Public Lectures

"Fichte's 1801/02 Wissenschaftslehre as a Response to the Atheism Controversy" (North American Fichte Society, May 13, 1999)

"A Deduction of Kant's Concept of the Highest Good" (Metropolitan State College of Denver, August 28, 1998)

"Fichte, Jacobi, and the Atheism Controversy" (North American Fichte Society, March 8, 1997)

"Odysseus and the Siren Call of Reason: The Frankfurt School Critique of Enlightenment" [PDF] (University of Pennsylvania, October 30, 1996)

"Jacobi's Philosophy of Faith and Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre 1794/95" (North American Fichte Society, March 18, 1995)

"Kant and the Project of Enlightenment" (La Salle University, December 6, 1994; Wake Forest University, February 20, 1995)

"Kant's First Antinomy and the Indirect Proof of Transcendental Idealism" (Pacific APA meeting, April 2, 1994)

Courses Taught From 1985 to 2003

(If I taught a particular course more than once, the total number of sections is listed in parentheses.)

Haverford College (As Visiting Assistant Professor)

Introductory Course:

  • Modern Theories of Consciousness

Upper Division Courses:

  • The Frankfurt School
  • Schopenhauer and Nietzsche
  • Independent Study on Aesthetic Education
  • Independent Study on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

University of Pennsylvania (As Lecturer)

Introductory Courses:

  • Aesthetics (10 sections)
  • Continental Philosophy: The Frankfurt School, Foucault, and Derrida (4 sections)
  • Environmental Ethics
  • Ethics (2 sections)
  • Existentialism (5 sections)
  • History of Modern Philosophy
  • Introduction to Philosophy (12 sections)
  • Political Philosophy (2 sections)

Upper Division Courses:

  • German Aesthetics: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche
  • The Frankfurt School (3 sections)
  • Heidegger's Being and Time (2 sections)
  • Independent Study on Adorno and The Authoritarian Personality
  • Independent Study on Benjamin and Adorno
  • Independent Study on Heidegger
  • Independent Study on Husserl and Sartre
  • Independent Study on Lukács, Benjamin, and Adorno
  • Independent Study on Sartre and existentialism

Bryn Mawr College (As Lecturer)

  • Nature and Culture (2 sections)
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Tragedy and Horror (4 sections)

La Salle University (As Adjunct Professor)

  • Approaches to God (3 sections)
  • Concepts of Humanity (2 sections)
  • Moral Inquiry (2 sections)
  • Social and Political Philosophy

University of Pennsylvania (As Teaching Assistant)

  • Ethics
  • Existentialism (2 sections)
  • History of Modern Philosophy (3 sections)
  • Justice, Law, and Morality

University of Texas at Austin (As Teaching Assistant)

  • Ancient Philosophy
  • History of Modern Philosophy
  • Logic

This page was last updated on July 6, 2021.

Shameless Self-Promotion

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  • Kant and the Project of Enlightenment
  • Moses Mendelssohn: Writings on Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible
  • My Academic Autobiography
  • Odysseus and the Siren Call of Reason: The Frankfurt School Critique of Enlightenment
  • Richard Wagner's "Opera and Drama"
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Recent Posts

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  • I'll Try Again
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  • I Should Post Something, Shouldn't I?
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  • I'll Have the Usual, Doctor
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Books

  • Bernard Lewis, Cultures in Conflict
  • Larry Bowman, Before the World Series
  • Josh Benson on What's the Matter with Thomas Frank's Book
  • Robert Warshow, The Immediate Experience
  • Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942
  • Nicholas Royle, The Uncanny
  • Marc Bousquet, How the University Works
  • Simon Blackburn, Truth: A Guide
  • Kim Newman, Anno Dracula
  • Two Books by Justin Gustainis: "Hard Spell" and "Evil Dark"
  • Philip Sabin, Simulating War
  • S. T. Joshi, Suicide in Brooklyn
  • S. T. Joshi, The Removal Company
  • S. T. Joshi, Conspiracy of Silence / Tragedy at Sarsfield Manor
  • Justin Gustainis, Known Devil
  • It's All I. N. J. Culbard's Fault That I Started Reading Graphic Novels
  • The Complete Don Quixote, Adapted and Illustrated by Rob Davis
  • Donald Rumbelow, The Complete Jack the Ripper
  • Paul Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History
  • Philip Sugden, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper
  • Robert Hare, Without Conscience
  • James Jessen Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders
  • I. N. J. Culbard, The King in Yellow
  • Stephen King, Joyland

Culture

  • "How long should I search for an academic position?"
  • "Should I go to graduate school?"
  • A Few Thoughts on James Rhodes's "Piano Man"
  • An Anti-Semitic Observation From Kant
  • How Not to Criticize Critics
  • Hugo Hamilton on the Loneliness of Being German
  • Jonathan Chait on Why Most Academics Aren't Republicans
  • Moses Mendelssohn and the Haskalah
  • Ronald J. Sider on the Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience
  • Swimming with the Psychopaths (B-Scan 360)
  • The "Whatever" Response
  • The Conservative Baby Boom
  • Theodore Dalrymple on the Frivolity of Evil
  • Thomas H. Benton on Going to Graduate School in the Humanities
  • Thomas Sowell on Redneck Culture - White and Black
  • Why Nietzsche Probably Wasn't a Relativist

Film

  • "You suck, Dick!"
  • Anne Applebaum Doesn't Seem to Know Very Much About Orson Welles
  • Build My Gallows High, Baby
  • Director Robert Wise Dies at 91
  • Do Alec Guinness a Favor
  • Eyes Without a Face
  • Häxan
  • The David Lean Collection
  • The Most Dangerous Game

Pictures

  • An Armadillo in Israel
  • It's Snowing Today
  • Rabbit Photo-Op

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