Existentialism

APHI 336, Fall 2008, TuTh TTH 10:15-11:35

Room: SS-133

http://www.fecundity.com/courses

P.D. Magnus

Campus phone: x2-4251

Office hours: W 11:00-noon, Th 2:45-3:45, and by appointment


Texts: The following are available at the campus bookstore and at Mary Jane's:

Sartre, Being and Nothingness [BN]

ISBN: 0-671-86780-6

de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity [EA]

ISBN: 080650160X

In addition, several readings will be available on E-Res.


Requirements:

25% paper

25% first mid-term exam

25% second mid-term exam

25% final exam


Class participation: Participation in class discussion is required. Exemplary participation will add to your grade, up to two-thirds of a letter grade.


Academic honesty:The paper should include citations to any works cited or consulted, as well as acknowledgments of helpful interactions. Cheating will not be tolerated.


The paper: The paper will be five pages on an assigned topic. It will be considered late if it is not handed in at or before the beginning of class on the day it is due. Each day late will result in a loss of one letter grade.


Absences: Students who will need to miss exam dates for foreseeable reasons should discuss them with the professor at the beginning of the term. If an emergency results in absence, the student should contact the professor as soon as possible. Make-up exams will be given only for documented, excused absences.


Schedule of topics: Specific readings may take more or less time than indicated, but due dates and the dates of exams are fixed.


Week 1

aug26: Introduction

aug28: What's existentialism?

Read Sartre, `Existentialism...'


Week 2

sep02: cont.

sep04: Literature and death.

Read `No exit'


Week 3

sep09: Kierkegaard.

Read `The Present Age'

sep11: cont.


Week 4

sep16: Nietzsche.

Read [selections]

sep18: cont.


Week 5

sep23: The phenomenological tradition + PAPER DUE

sep25: Negation and nothingness.

Read BN pp. 33-44, 56-69


Week 6

sep30: NO CLASS

oct02: FIRST MIDTERM EXAM


Week 7

oct07: Bad faith.

Read BN pp. 86-90, 96-116

oct09: NO CLASS


Week 8

oct14: The look of the other.

Read BN pp. 301-303, 340-355

oct16: Freedom!

Read BN pp. 619-629, 647-653, 701-711


Week 9

oct21: Implications. Read BN pp. 785-798

oct23: cont.


Week 10

oct28: Another viewpoint.

Read Marcel, `The ego...'

oct30: cont.


Week 11

nov04: SECOND MIDTERM EXAM

nov06: The ethics of ambiguity.

Read EA ch.I


Week 12

nov11: Relations with others. Read EA ch.II

nov13: The positive project. Read EA ch.III §§1-2


Week 13

nov18: The future. Read EA ch.III §§3-4

nov20: Ambiguity. Read EA ch.II §5


Week 14

nov25: cont. Read EA conclusion

nov27: NO CLASS


Week 15

dec02: continued

dec05: So what was existentialism?