Continental
Philosophy:
Existentialism
80-253
Summer II, 2004
Teaser Trailer
1. Have you ever considered smoking in order look like a cool French Existentialist?
2. Is this man happy?
Find answers to these and other burning questions this summer in Continental Philosophy.
Your Instructor
Name: David Gray, Graduate Student Extraordinaire
Office: Baker Hall 143
Work Phone: 412-268-8148
Email: degray@andrew.cmu.edu
Course Description
This course explores the existential movement in European philosophy as it emerged from the rationalistic tradition of Kant and Hegel. In part, existentialism considers questions no person can avoid: the status of human existence in the face of death, the meaning and impact of the God-Idea, the significance of our interpersonal relationships, the source of our moral values, and the role of reason and emotion in understanding our lives. Generally, existentialists believe that life has little "objective" value, while arguing that the "subjective" individual must create his or her own values by affirming live and living it. This separates existentialism from the more traditional philosophical movements. In particular, we shall examine how the philosophies of Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus address these fundamental problems. In addition, short fiction of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Franz Kafka, and films by Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and Woody Allen will augment our understanding of existentialism.
Important Handouts
Schedule
| Date |
Topic |
Readings |
| June 28 | Introductions |
None |
| June 29 | Descartes |
Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (Handout) |
| June 30 | Kant's Critique of Pure Reason | Solomon, From Rationalism to Existentialism, pp. 9-25 (Handout) |
| July 1 | Kant: Morality and Freedom | Solomon, From Rationalism to Existentialism, pp. 25-38 (Handout) |
| July 2 | Hegel | Solomon, From Rationalism to Existentialism, pp. 39, 45-63 (Handout) |
| July 5 | No Class! | 5th of July -- Woo-Hoo! |
| July 6 | The Escape from Rationalism | Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground, pp. 3-29 |
| July 7 | Movie Day! Ikuru |
Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript,
"How Johannes Climacus Became an Author" and "An
Edifying Divertissement", in Bretall, A Kierkegaard Anthology
(KA), pp. 193-194, 231-252
Kierkegaard, The Point of View for my Work as an Author, in KA, pp. 324-335 |
| July 8 | Kierkegaard: Irony and the Individual | Kierkegaard, The Concept of Irony, Part II, pp. 263-264, 270-271, 274-276, 278-281, 336-342 (Handout) Kierkegaard, The Present Age, "The Individual and 'The Public'", in KA, pp. 260-269 |
| July 9 | Kierkegaard: The Spheres of Existence and Subjectivity | Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Vol. I, "The Rotation Method", in KA, pp. 21-33 Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, "Truth is Subjectivity" and "The Subjective Thinker", in KA, pp. 210-231 |
| July 12 | Kierkegaard: The Paradox of Faith | Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments, "The
Absolute Paradox", pp. 46-47, 49-50, 54-59, 61, 63-66 (Handout)
God, The Bible, "Genesis", 22:1-13(Handout) Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, "Problemata: Preliminary Expectoration", pp. 36-43 (Handout) Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, "Problem I: Is There Such a Thing as a Teleological Suspension of the Ethical?" in KA, pp. 129-134 Take Home Exam #1 Handed Out |
| July 13 | Kierkegaard: Despair and Freedom | Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, in KA, pp. 341-371 |
| July 14 | Schopenhauer: The Aesthetic | Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation Vol 1, pp. 178-181, 195-207, 255-267 (Handout) |
| July 15 | Schopenhauer: The Ascetic | Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation Vol 2, pp. 573-588, 634-639 (Handout) |
| July 16 | Movie Day! Winter's Light |
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Sections 1-9, in Kaufmann, Basic Writings of Nietzsche (BN) (Study Guide) Take Home Exam #1 Due |
| July 19 | Nietzsche's Aesthetics | Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Sections 10-15, 18, 24-25 in BN |
| July 20 | Nietzsche's Account of Truth | Nietzsche, On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral
Sense (Handout)
Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Sections 110-112, 121, 246, 354, 355, 373 (Handout) Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Preface (pp. 192-194), Sections 1-2, 4, 10-11, 21, 23, 39, 43, 207, 230, in BN Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals, Third Essay, Section 12, in BN Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, "Reason in Philosophy" (Sections 1 and 6), "How the 'True World' Finally Became a Fable" (Handout) |
| July 21 | Nietzsche's Psychology of Morality and Religion | Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Sections 108-109,
125, 343(Handout)
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Sections 186-187, 198-200, 260-262, in BN Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals, Second Essay, Sections 1-6, 8-9, 16-20, 23-24, in BN |
| July 22 | Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values | Nietzsche, Daybreak, Section 103 (Handout)
Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Section 335, 341 (Handout) Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue 1 - 6; First Part "On the Three Metamorphoses" (Handout) Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Sections 44, 56, 61-62, 203, 211- 212, 242, 272, 296, in BN |
| July23 | Movie Day! Breathless |
Sartre, The Wall, pp. 1-17 (Handout) (Study Guide) |
| July 26 | Heidegger:
Death and Resoluteness |
Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Illich, pp. 123-167 (Handout) Take Home Exam #2 Handed Out |
| July 27 | Sartre and Existentialism | Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions, pp. 9-51 |
| July 28 | Sartre: Nothingness and Bad Faith | Sartre, Being and Nothingness, pp. 318-348 (Handout) |
| July 29 | Sartre, No Exit, in No Exit and Three Other Plays, pp. 3-46 | |
| July 30 | Movie Day! The Seventh Seal |
Camus, "Absurdity and Suicide" and "Absurd Walls" in The Myth of Sisyphus (MS), pp. 3-28 (Study Guide) Take Home Exam #3 Due |
| August 2 | Camus, "Philosophical Suicide" in MS, pp. 28-50 Take Home Exam #3 Handed Out |
|
| August 3 | Camus: The Absurd Man | Camus, "Absurd Freedom" and "The Absurd Man" in MS, pp. 51-92 |
| August 4 | Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus | Camus, "Philosophy and Fiction", "Ephemeral Creation", and "The Myth of Sisyphus" in MS, pp. 93-104, 113-123 |
| August 5 | Movie Day! Crimes and Misdemeanors |
None |
| August 6 | Camus, "Return to Tipasa" in MS, pp.195-204 Tolstoy, What is Art? (Handout) |
|
| August 9 | No Class | Take Home Exam #3 Due by Noon |
Power Point Slides
Pre-Introduction
Introduction
Descartes
Transition to Immanuel Kant
Kant
Hegel
Advanced Study Guides
Schopenhauer's Transcendental Idealism
Schopenhauer's Theory of the Will
Schopenhauer's Theory of Art and Aesthetic Experience
Schopenhauer's Theory of Morals and Self-Renunciation
Nietzsche's Aesthetics (Sample Paper)
Nietzsche's Account of Truth
Nietzsche's Psychology of Morality and Religion
Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values (Sample Paper)
Heidegger on Phenomenology and the Question of Being
Heidegger on Being-in-the-World (i): The World
Heidegger on das Man, Attunement, Care, and Angst
Heidegger on Being-in-the-World (ii): Being-In
Heidegger on Death and Resoluteness
Heidegger on Time and Temporality
Useful Links
Routledge Encyclopedia
of Philosophy -- http://www.rep.routledge.com/index.html
Sweet online resource! Go here first. There is also a CD-ROM version available
from CMU's Hunt Library.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
-- http://plato.stanford.edu
Another good online encyclopedia for philosophy.
Dr. Anthony Storm's Commentary
on Kierkegaard -- http://www.sorenkierkegaard.org/
A useful place to get overviews of most of S.K.'s work.
Answers
1. I know I have!
2. According to Albert Camus (one handsome philosopher, I might add), this man must be thought of as happy...
I love Apache! So should you!
