PHIL 117 EXISTENTIALISM

Catalog Description:


Study of the problem of the existing individual, or inner self -- most especially the problem of choice in the context of radical freedom and finitude. Particular attention will be paid to the philosophical writings of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre, through some major literary works of these figures and others (Camus, Dostoevsky) will also be considered.


Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X.


General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2), Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI)




Readings include:


Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Miguel de Unamuno, José Ortega y Gasset, Albert Camus, and Frantz Fanon.

Have you ever asked yourself:


Who am I?


What am I?


What life should I live?


How should I live it?


These are important questions!


Are we all existentialists to some degree?


Existentialism is a philosophy that explores the topic of what it means to be human.


“Existentialism” was a term first coined by Gabriel Marcel in 1943, though its roots date much further back, and not all those labelled “existentialists” were keen on that label.


It is not a unified school of thought, but there is a shared concern for the human situation, how to live, what it means to create a meaningful and authentic individual life, in a way that cannot be reasoned abstractly.

Are we radically free?


Are we, therefore, completely morally responsible?


Are we wholly self-making?


How does one live “authentically”?


Is directly confronting death the most effective way to understand our authenticity?


What roles do moods have in our everyday experience of our self and situation?


Do we have any nature or fixed essence?


Or are we just historical beings?


Is life essentially nothingness, absurdity?


These are just a few of the questions we will explore in this course.





Here is a link to a work-in-progress playlist of YouTube videos on Existentialism.

Alberto Giacometti, existentialist artist


How would you describe his depiction of the human condition?


Edward Hopper's Nighthawk (1942)


Are we more individual or social beings?