Loyola University Chicago

Department of Philosophy

PHIL 433: Phenomenology & Existentialism

Catalog Description

Developments of the phenomological method are studied in the works of existentialist authors such as Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.


PHIL 433: Existentialism

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.