PHIL 280: Introduction to Existentialism

Spring Semester 2014 | Evening | Burnaby

INSTRUCTOR: Lisa Shapiro, WMC 5661 (lshapiro@sfu.ca)

REQUIRED TEXTS

• Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, Penguin 978-014044490
• Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, Vintage, 978-0679734529
• Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, Cambridge UP 978-0521691635
• Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays, Vintage, 978-0679725169
• Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, Citadel, 978-0806501604
• Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Penguin, 978-0143039884

COURSE DESCRIPTION

We will read a range of works taken to contribute to the existentialist movement that developed in the middle part of the 20^th century. Existentialism is characterized by the view that existence precedes essence. That is, existentialists hold that we are at based unformed, but rather make ourselves what we turn out to be: we are responsible for ourselves. We will engage in an extended effort to understand this claim. For what I am responsible? If I am responsible for my actions, what does it mean for my actions to my own? What does it mean to take action? Who holds me responsible? What role does my upbringing and my social situation play in my being (or becoming) what I am? What is it to be an ‘authentic individual’ or ‘true to oneself’? Is it even possible to be true to oneself?

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Class presentations (likely in groups) with follow up written 4-5 pg paper- 35%
• Midterm- 20%
• 1 longer (7-8 pg) final paper-35%
• Weekly response questions and class participation-10%
  

Prerequisites:  None.