PHIL 433: Phenomenology & Existentialism
PHIL 433: Phenomenology and Existentialism
The Generic Catalog Description
Developments of the phenomological method are studied in the works of existentialist authors such as Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.
PHIL 433: Existentialism
David Schweickart
This course will examine three major figures associated with one of the most significant philosophical movements of the twentieth century, which developed in France during and after World War II and came to be known as "existentialism." We will focus our attention on Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus. Since all three wrote fiction devoted to developing existentialist themes, we will read plays and novels as well as philosophical texts. We will examine the existentialist quest for meaning in a seemingly absurd and radically contingent world; we will look at their attempts to thematize history and to come to terms with the question of violence. We will consider the existentialist approach to issues of sexuality and gender identity.
We will read three novels:
Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea,
Simone de Beauvoir's She Came to Stay, and
Albert Camus' The Plague.
We will read two plays by Sartre, "No Exit" and "Dirty Hands" and his philosophical autobiography, The Words
We will also read:
Selections from Sartre's early philosophical bombshell, Being and Nothingness, his essay, "Existentialism is a Humanism," and his attempt at formulating an existential Marxism, Search for a Method. We will read Beauvoir's ethical treatise, The Ethics of Ambiguity, Camus' The Rebel and the greatest of all works in applied existentialism, Beauvoir's The Second Sex.
We will begin the class by viewing the documentary, "Sartre for Himself."
Students will be involved in presenting much of the above material.