PHI 246 - Existential Philosophy

3 Credits, 3 Contact Hours
3 lecture periods 0 lab periods

Exploration of key aspects of the human condition, such as the meaning of life and death; authenticity and absurdity; freedom and responsibility; truth and subjectivity; gender and race; affect and sexuality. Primary source texts include the works of Kierkegaard, Neitzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Sartre, Beauvoir, Du Bois and Fanon.

Gen-Ed: Meets AGEC - HUM or SBS and C; Meets CTE - A&H or SBS and C.

2. Express philosophical problems, concepts, and methods in existential philosophy.

3. Engage in philosophical dialogue and navigate disagreement in a respectful and truth-seeking way.

4. Use philosophical approaches to develop and support one’s own philosophy.

5. Come to appreciate existentialism as a diverse, living, and evolving philosophical tradition.

1. 19^th Century Existential Philosophy
   1. Introduction to Existentialism
   2. Existentialism in Literature
   3. Kierkegaard, Existentialism and Religion
   4. Nietzsche
2. 20^th Century Existential Philosophy
   1. Heidegger and Phenomenology
   2. Hannah Arendt and Political Phenomenology
   3. Camus and/or Beckett – “Theater of the Absurd”
   4. Sartre - Essays and Literature
3. Feminist Existential Philosophy
   1. Simone de Beauvoir
   2. Feminist Existentialist Literature, Historical and Contemporary
   3. Impact and Influence on Movements in the United States 
4. Black Existentialist Philosophy
   1. W.E.B. Du Bois
   2. Frantz Fanon
   3. Impact and Influence on Movements in the United States
5. Black Existentialist Literature, Historical and Contemporary