This course serves as an introduction to existentialism within the context of nineteenth and early twentieth-century philosophy. We pay special attention to the leitmotifs that existentialist philosophers grappled with: freedom, subjectivity, anxiety, ethics, and death.
Course Structure
Session 1: Moral Responsibility (Dostoevsky)
- Individual responsibility and the burden of choice
- Crime and punishment in existential terms
- The underground man and alienation
Session 2: Nihilism (Nietzsche)
- The death of God and the collapse of traditional values
- Nihilism as cultural crisis and philosophical problem
- The will to power and creating new values
Session 3: Existential Angst (Sartre)
- Being and nothingness
- Radical freedom and the anxiety of choice
- Bad faith and authentic existence
Session 4: Pessimism (Camus)
- The absurd condition of human existence
- The myth of Sisyphus and revolt
- Suicide as philosophical problem
Key Themes
- Freedom: The weight of absolute freedom and responsibility
- Subjectivity: Individual existence precedes essence
- Anxiety: The emotional response to radical freedom
- Ethics: Creating values in a world without predetermined meaning
- Death: Finitude and the urgency of authentic living
Philosophical Context
Existentialism emerged from the crisis of traditional values and the breakdown of established meaning systems. These philosophers grappled with what it means to live authentically in a world that offers no predetermined purpose or values.
Learning Approach
We examine both the philosophical arguments and the literary expressions of existentialist themes, understanding how these thinkers used both conceptual analysis and creative expression to explore the human condition.
The course combines close reading of primary texts with contemporary applications, exploring how existentialist insights remain relevant to modern questions about meaning, authenticity, and responsibility.