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Course Outlines and Lecture Notes
Lecture List
- 101 Socrates and the Life of Inquiry (1990)
- 102 Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics (1990)
- 103 Kant and the Path to Enlightenment (1990)
- 104 Mill on Liberty (1990)
- 105 Hegel and Modern Life (1990)
- 106 Nietzsche: Knowledge and Belief (1990)
- 107 Kierkegaard and the Contemporary Spirit (1990)
- 108 Philosophy and Post-Modern Culture (1990)
- 201 Nietzsche as Myth and Mythmaker (1991)
- 202 Nietzsche on Truth and Lie (1991)
- 203 Nietzsche as Master of Suspicion and Immoralist (1991)
- 204 Nietzsche: The Death of God (1991)
- 205 Nietzsche: The Eternal Recurrence (1991)
- 206 Nietzsche: The Will to Power (1991)
- 207 Nietzsche as Artist (1991)
- 208 Nietzsche’s Progeny (1991)
- 301 Paul Ricoeur: The Masters of Suspicion (1993)
- 302 Heidegger and the Rejection of Humanism (1993)
- 303 Sartre and the Roads to Freedom (1993)
- 303 Sartre and the Roads to Freedom v2 (1993)
- 304 Marcuse and One-Dimensional Man (1993)
- 305 Habermas and the Fragile Dignity of Humanity (1993)
- 306 Foucault and the Disappearance of the Human (1993)
- 307 Derrida and the Ends of Man (1993)
- 308 Baudrillard: Fatal Strategies (1993)
Additional Information
Recent Comments
- Fr. Emmanuel Ogundele September 10, 2018 at 5:42 pm on 208 Nietzsche’s Progeny (1991)I have kept coming to this site ever since I came across it by accident some years ago. Here you have a goldmine. Rick could rightly be described as one of the greatest philosophers of this age. That he wasn't valued by his colleagues did not surprise me at all. People are so petty that they cannot appreciate greatness even when it is right by their side. Kudos to those who have kept his thought alive. I will for ever be a his disciple.
- Lauri Svedberg September 9, 2018 at 1:28 pm on In MemoriumProfessor Roderick's presentations are a skillful blend of academic philosophy and "real life" examples. The joy he projects as he interprets the great thinkers soars above mere lectures: These are playful (yet profound) mental masterpieces. What a marvelous legacy! Thank you for making these gems available.
- Mark B. August 21, 2018 at 2:08 pm on 101 Socrates and the Life of Inquiry (1990)Mr. Roderick is probably the most engaging thing to ever come out of Duke University, and certainly out of their humanities departments (including philosophy) in general. The idea that the "educated" educators at Duke did not see the value and great honor of being tied to the name of Rick Roderick is perhaps in itself one of the most damning epitaphs an educational institution could ever possibly be dealt by their own actions. No other professor (especially in philosophy) that I have knowledge of (as a Philosophy major and reader of many former philosophy professors) has ever warranted as much attention as a profound and engaging lecturer in the very drab and coffee-stained area of philosophy as Rick Roderick. Roderick chose only the most important thinkers in his estimation--and my own--to lecture on as he could get to them. Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marcuse, the Frankfurt School, Socrates, Baudrillard...how many lecturers dared to address the most critical thinkers of the postmodern? That such an amazing philosophy lecturer should be born in the south, have an impossibly southern accent and mannerisms, and establish forever such a legacy admired around the world, continually drive excitement about philosophy in the age of blips and beeps and immediate gratification, and thus leave behind in the pedagogical dust so many of his peers who would continue to strive to merely to appear as something other than they were, surely from some *other* remote location, rather than West Texas or the Carolinas, this is proof that the name of a university means relatively little, and that profundity and talent are something rare indeed in this world, but apparently most shockingly at Duke University, of all places. I sympathize with his family for losing such a good man so early, with philosophy students old and young for not getting to hear more of his thoughts on postmodernity and the western tradition of philosophy, and I rather ironically must sympathize in passing with Duke University for failing to see the great tragedy of not giving such a lecturer their highest honors and appreciation in what looks to be, in his absence, indeed a sad legacy for Duke University. May they learn their lesson well. We certainly have learned one in the philosophical circles of the globe who adore his simply-spoken, but uniquely eloquent lectures. Look to the individual philosopher, the individual professors, not to the institution, for excellence. That must be our lesson. Much praise is due to the creators of this site and the love they have given to Roderick's lectures and his memory. And thank you, Rick Roderick, for caring about philosophy in an age when so little care is given to anything worthwhile, let alone to thinking critically about our world.
- Damian Seizov August 1, 2018 at 11:03 pm on 107 Kierkegaard and the Contemporary Spirit (1990)Dear Dr Roderick, you are an amazing human being. Thank you for your work.
- Christopher Castley July 20, 2018 at 4:36 pm on AboutI was a student at Duke University and got to have Rick as my teacher in an Intro to Logic course taught during the summer term, not even a year before he was shunned by Duke and moved to UT Austin. During that summer term, he wore the same black t-shirt of the rap group Public Enemy's biggest album, "Fear of a Black Planet" every day, and I do remember him wearing a blazer over it, just to give him more maturity and make him look more professorial. He was sooo much bigger than life, forever smoking out the open window and venting to us about how the crypto-Klansmen of the Duke faculty had denied him tenure because he didn't fit their Harvard Yahd-wanna-be image to any degree, despite his enormous magnetism and genuinely singular knowledge of the subject matter. At the beginning of the logic course he made a point of telling us that, while logic was somewhat interesting and useful for computer programming and probably artificial intelligence, it played virtually no role in human affairs because the overwhelming majority of people were "pre-biased Nazis" who merely back-rationalized all their various proclivities and petty xenophobias. On more than one occasion he would stick his head out the window and yell "FUCK YOU, TOO" at the top of his lungs out to the quad, at the rest of the campus and, most importantly, the pretentious, overconceited faculty who had rejected him because they placed bland superficial diversity over real and radical diversity of opinion and perspective. And, of course, Rick wouldn't be the first real person of superior substance that Duke would reject -- they rejected everyone who didn't fit their crypto-conservative, strictly-Northern-Europeanist, fetish. In time they would also reject people like Henry "Skip" Gates and David Castriota, both of whom were just powerhouse professors who absolutely taught their classes with an absolute "redpill" tendency. Maybe someone should make a movie about Rick Roderick, and call it "It Came From West Texas". Or something like that.
- weisskopf July 15, 2018 at 10:23 am on 305 Habermas and the Fragile Dignity of Humanity (1993)THANK YOU !! Greetings from Switzerland
- David July 15, 2018 at 6:41 am on 308 Baudrillard: Fatal Strategies (1993)Years later (after watching these lectures, and reading Baudrillard and Foucault because of them), I have to agree with you. Or at least share the sentiment. These books have a very particular impact on young susceptible students. It is always the same demographic. There is the definite occasional truth to the lush observations, but the world isn't "disappearing." However, spending too much time in your apartment reading philosophy books might convince you that it is, and make you "disappear." Irony in irony, huh?
- Max Roderick July 6, 2018 at 10:35 am on LinksHi to whoever is running and curating this website! I want to thank you sincerely for all the work you've done maintaining Rick's legacy. I don't know that a project like this is something my brothers or I would ever have gotten around to, and the transcriptions of my father's lectures especially have been a great help to me while writing an essay about him over the past few months. If it isn't too much trouble I'd love to hear from you by email, hopefully to hear about your connection with Rick, but on a more personal level I'd like to be able to thank you by name in the essay. I'll speak to my publisher about possibly making it available on this website, if that's something you'd be interested in too. best regards, Max Roderick
- Max Roderick July 6, 2018 at 10:17 am on 305 Habermas and the Fragile Dignity of Humanity (1993)Hey Lenore, I can tell you Rick was a big supporter long before Bernie even considered running for president, and my brothers and I certainly put our votes in for Bernie. Obviously I can't speak for my father, but I would argue that his response to the current state of politics wouldn't consider the modern idea of political correctness as a leftist issue. I personally believe what we call the left, in the democratic party, is dominated by conservative ideology, and it is up to people on the actual left to realize their party is no longer concerned with their ideology, and start figuring things out from there. hope your research is going well, I'd love to visit Germany myself some day Max
- Lenore June 17, 2018 at 3:21 am on 305 Habermas and the Fragile Dignity of Humanity (1993)Chris, Glad you're there! Yes, for US a leftist. For Europeans, for example, a competent observer of society. He woukd have been a Bernie supporter, don't you think? His unbridled down-home Southern straightforwardness is refreshing! I'm in Germany right now doing research on my Habermas-based thesis (communicative action). Btw, Monday is Habermas' birthday. I think RR will be at his party in spirit. Thanks again for your response.
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