Introduction to Existentialism (219-0-20)

Instructors

Mark Alznauer
847/491-2559
Kresge 3-417

Meeting Info

Harris Hall L07: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

This class is an introduction to existentialism through a study of several of its principal philosophic sources: Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Jean Paul Sartre. We will focus on existentialist theories of value. With respect to this problem, we will explore existentialist conceptions of absurdity, alienation, anxiety, authenticity, and affliction.

Learning Objectives

• Attain the conceptual tools needed i) to recognize and understand prescriptive issues, questions and claims; ii) to distinguish them from descriptive issues, questions, and claims; and iii) to ask whether the prescriptive questions can be grounded in objective discourse or are instead groundless: rooted in some sense in human subjectivity or choice rather than in the nature of the world.
• Identify the values revealed by an outlook or discourse and understand what it means to ask whether these values come from psychological strength or weakness, from authentic and responsible choice or from a cowardly desire to deflect our responsibility for values onto the objective world.
• Recognize the complexity of many ethical issues and consider a variety of alternative resolutions and the reasons for holding them, and how the availability of these reasons might be adversely affected by the coming of nihilism,
• Appreciate the insights available in the existentialist tradition and consider whether these insights are compatible with our own ethical, religious, and political convictions.

Class Materials (Required)

Class materials must be purchased.

1.) Fear and Trembling/Repetition: Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol. 6 (paperback)
Søren Kierkegaard
Princeton University Press (978-0691020266)

2.) The Gay Science: With a Prelude in German Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Cambridge (978-0521636452)

3.) Being and Time (paperback)
Martin Heidegger
Harper (978-0061575594)

4.) Existentialism is a Humanism (paperback)
Jean Paul Sartre
Yale University Press (978-0300115468)

Class Notes

Final paper

Class Attributes

Ethical and Evaluative Thinking Foundational Disci
Ethics & Values Distro Area

Associated Classes

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 3-410: Wed 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 3-410: Wed 10:00AM - 10:50AM

DIS - Annenberg Hall G31: Wed 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-325: Thurs 1:00PM - 1:50PM