Intro to Existentialism

1.    Course Description
This class is an introduction to existentialism, one of the most influential intellectual currents of the 20th century. The existentialists’ characteristic preoccupations arise from what they see as threats to human freedom arising from such diverse forces as religious conformity, cultural homogenization, unfeeling rationality and mass society. In this course, we will explore the existentialists’ philosophical responses to these threats, beginning with the roots of the movement in the 19th century. In addition to philosophical texts, we will read literary texts and watch films in order to familiarize ourselves with the wide range of genres in which existentialist themes are explored.

2.    Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
●    comprehend the existentialists’ characteristic preoccupations;
●    relate existentialist concerns to earlier ideas in the philosophical tradition;
●    place existentialist notions within a social historical context;
●    intelligently discuss the existentialists’ philosophical responses to the threats to human freedom arising from such diverse forces as religious conformity, cultural homogenization, unfeeling rationality and mass society; and
●    apply their knowledge of existentialist concerns with the wide range of genres in which existentialist themes are explored, such as philosophical texts, literary texts, films.

3.    Reading Material
Required Materials
●    Course Reader (available to download on NEO)
Includes:
José Ortega y Gasset – “Man Has No Nature”
Martin Heidegger on being preceding essence – from Being and Time
Heidegger on Anxiety – from Being and Time
Soren Kierkegaard on Anxiety – from The Concept of Anxiety
Jean-Paul Sartre on Anxiety– from Being and Nothingness
Friedrich Nietzsche on Faith – from The Gay Science
Kierkegaard on Faith – from Fear and Trembling
Nietzsche on Reason – from The Gay Science and Twilight of the Idols
Fyodor Dostoevsky on Reason – from Notes from Underground
Kierkegaard on the Individual and the Crowd – from “That Individual”
Nietzsche on the Herd – from Beyond Good and Evil and on the Genealogy of Morals
Heidegger on das Man – from Being and Time
Sartre on Bad Faith and the Look  from Being and Nothingness
Ralph Ellison on Fad Faith and the Look – from Invisible Man
Kierkegaard on Freedom – from Either/Or and The Concept of Anxiety
Sartre on Freedom – from Being and Nothingness
Camus on Living Meaningfully – from The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel
Nietzsche on Living Dangerously – from The Gay Science

Recommended Materials
All of the following are available through the AAU library at ProQuest Ebook Central.
●    Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction, by Thomas Flynn (Oxford UP, 2006).
●    Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, selected and introduced by Walter Kaufman (Plume, 2004).
●    Basic Writings of Existentialism, edited and with an introduction by Gordon Marino (Modern Library, 2004).

4.    Teaching methodology
Students will be required to think, participate in class discussions, and write, as well as do the readings laid out in the syllabus and take online quizzes in preparation for class sessions. There will be weekly lectures and seminars in class, during which we will discuss the week’s readings in order to gain a better grasp of the concepts covered and their context in the history of ideas. In addition to the reading assignments, we will be watching two films during class. A midterm and a final exam or a final essay will be required to demonstrate mastery of the material covered.