Philosophy 211
Existentialism
Fall/Winter/Spring 20**
Instructor: Alan Reynolds
Email:
Office: **
Class meetings: **
Office Hours: **
Course Description:
This course will be an introduction to the philosophical tradition of existentialism, starting with Nietzsche and Kierkegaard and coming up to the existentialists of post-WWII France. The existentialist tradition contains some of the most moving and profound texts in all of philosophy. The writers are dealing with issues of personal freedom, responsibility, the end of religious certainty, the ambiguities of political oppression, and more. The readings will include philosophical texts, novels, and plays. The course will be reading intensive and discussion oriented.
Course Requirements and Expectations
Two essays: 15% of final grade each = 30% final grade
Final Paper: 30% of final grade
Reading quizzes: 20% of final grade
Attendance and participation: 20% of final grade
There will be a short reading quiz every day at the start of class that will be graded pass / no pass. The essays topics will be assigned two weeks before the due date. Class attendance is mandatory, including the movie screenings on Sunday evenings indicated in the syllabus below. Attendance and participation points will be forfeited for the day if you use an electronic device in class (laptop, cell phone, etc), or if you are inappropriately distracting your peers (whispering, etc). You must bring a hard copy of the readings to class to receive attendance credit. More than three unexcused absences, or more than five total absences, will result in an automatic drop of two letter grades.
You are expected to come to each class having read all the day’s assigned material carefully. Philosophy texts can be quite difficult, so some of the material should be read more than once. Furthermore, you should come to class prepared to discuss the material. This means that as you read, take note of parts in the text that confuse you, that seem problematic, that need further clarification, etc, and bring them up in discussion.
Grading Rubric
A = 92% or above
A- = 90-92%
B+ = 87-89%
B = 83-86%
B- = 80-82%
C+ = 77-79%
C = 73-76%
C- = 70-72%
D+ = 67-69%
D = 63-66%
D- = 60-62%
F = 59% or below
Essay evaluation rubric
The following rubric reflects the general standards of the Philosophy Department at the University of Oregon:
A = excellent. No mistakes, well-written, and distinctive in some way or other.
B = good. No significant mistakes, well-written, but not distinctive in any way.
C = OK. Some errors, but a basic grasp of the material.
D = poor. Several errors. A tenuous grasp of the material.
F = failing. Problematic on all fronts indicating either no real grasp of the material or a complete lack of effort.
Disability Accommodation
I am committed to providing fair access to all students. Please submit all disability accommodation requests in compliance with University of Oregon policy. Contact the Disability Office for information.
Academic Honesty
Academic dishonesty will absolutely not be tolerated. This includes plagiarism, fabrication, cheating, etc. If you have any questions about what exactly constitutes plagiarism, you must take responsibility. The University Student Conduct Code defines explicitly what is considered student misconduct. Students that fail to meet the expectations of academic honesty will possibly be failed from the class and could face disciplinary action.
Reading Materials: Readings will be available on Blackboard, except for the following books, which you will have to purchase (or receive through InterLibrary loan) on your own:
Nietzsche = Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Nietzsche = Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ (single text containing both books; Penguin Classics edition)
Beckett = Waiting for Godot
Camus = The Stranger
Recommendation: In the first week of class, print out all the readings for the entire term (5 cents per each double-sided page in Knight Library), and put them in a three-ring binder. In the first week of class, go online and put in your InterLibrary loan order through the UO Library website for each of the above books, so you will ensure yourself to have them all on time (and free!).
Course Reading Schedule
Unit 1: “God is Dead”
With this famous declaration by Nietzsche, a new era began in the West – an era in which religious authority began its slow crumble. With the end of religious belief, all other forms of authority lost their power to dictate norms and provide meaning to human lives. In the immediate wake of God’s death, life appeared to be robbed of meaning and purpose.
Week 1
M: Introduce the course
T: Historically situate existentialism
Nietzsche – The Gay Science – “The madman” (pp. 181-82)
Nietzsche – The Gay Science – “Believers and their need to believe” (pp. 287-290)
W: Kierkegaard – Fear and Trembling – “Problema I: Is there a teleological suspension of the ethical?” (pp. 83-95)
Recommended background reading: Genesis 22:1-19
Th: Kierkegaard – Fear and Trembling – “Problema II: Is there an absolute duty to God?” (pp. 96-108)
Week 2
M: Dostoyevski – Brothers Karamazov –“Rebellion” (pp. 281-292)
T: Dostoyevski – Brothers Karamazov – “Grand Inquisitor” (pp. 292-314)
W: Beckett – Waiting for Godot – Act I (pp. 1-59)
Th: Beckett – Waiting for Godot – Act II (pp. 61-109)
Week 3
M: Nietzsche – Anti-Christ (forward – aphorism 19)
T: Nietzsche – Anti-Christ (aphorism 20-49)
W: Nietzsche – Anti-Christ (aphorism 50-62)
Th:Nietzsche – Twilight of the Idols
“How the ‘Real World’ at last Became a Myth” (pp. 50-51)
“The Four Great Errors” – Aphorism 8 (p. 65)
“The Problem of Socrates” (pp. 39-44)
“Reason in Philosophy” (pp. 45-49)
SUN: MOVIE! Ingmar Bergman – Seventh Seal (7pm, LIL 182)
Week 4
M: Sartre – Nausea (pp. 126-135, 156-160)
T: Dostoyevski – Notes from the Underground – Section VII – IX (pp. 20-35)
W: Camus – The Stranger – Part 1 (pp. 3-59)
Th: Camus – The Stranger – Part 2 (pp. 63-123)
*Essay 1 due Thursday beginning of class
Unit 2: Existentialism and Ethics
Once religious authority is undermined, everything that was previously tied up in God is also undermined – such as timeless moral truths, an externally-imposed meaning and purpose to human life, a purpose to human history, etc. In the wake of this collapse, norms must be rebuilt from the ground up – staring with one’s relationship with oneself, and expanding outward to our relationships with others.
Week 5
M: Sartre – Being and Nothingness – “Patterns of Bad Faith” (pp. 96-112)
*Extra credit movie write-up due Monday beginning of class
T: Sartre – Being and Nothingness – “The Look” (pp. 340-365)
W: Sartre – Being and Nothingness – “The Look” (pp. 365-400)
Th: Sartre – No Exit (all)
Week 6
M: Sartre – “Existentialism is a Humanism” (all)
T: Beauvoir – Ethics of Ambiguity – “Ambiguity and Freedom” (pp. 7-34)
W: Nietzsche – Genealogy of Morals – “‘Good and Evil,’ ‘Good and Bad’” (aphorism 1-12)
Th: Nietzsche – Genealogy of Morals – “‘Good and Evil,’ ‘Good and Bad’” (aphorism 12-17)
Twilight of the Idols – “Morality as Anti-Nature” (pp. 52-57)
SUN: MOVIE! Woody Allen – Crimes and Misdemeanors (7pm, LIL 182)
Unit 3: Existentialism and Politics
Once our political structures are not grounded in any divine or ultimate foundation, then we must reconsider how we understand political freedom, oppression, and resistance.
Week 7
M: Sartre – Search for a Method – “Existentialism and Marxism” (pp. 3-34)
T: Sartre – Search for a Method – “Existentialism and Marxism”(pp. 3-34)
W: Beauvoir – Ethics of Ambiguity “However, politics is right…” (pp. 136-159)
Th:Kafka – The Trial – “Block, The Merchant; Dismissal of the Lawyer” (pp. 166-198)
*Essay 2 due Thursday beginning of class
Week 8
M:Sartre – Anti-Semite and Jew – Section 1 (pp. 7-54)
*Extra credit movie write-up due Monday beginning of class
T: Beauvoir – Second Sex – “Introduction” (pp. 3-17)
W: Ellison – Invisible Man – “Prologue” (pp. 3-14)
Th: Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth – “Concerning Violence” (pp. 35-55)
Recommended background viewing: “The Battle of Algiers”
Unit 4: Life and Death
At the end of the course, we explore a possible response to the death of God, one that Nietzsche himself offered – not despair, but joy. With Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, we are offered a figure that celebrates our finitude, without remorse or nostalgia for our lost deities, lost authorities, lost sources of meaning. Is this new existence one that we can, in fact, affirm and celebrate?
Week 9
M: Camus – Myth of Sisyphus – “An Absurd Reasoning” (selections from anthology)
T: Sartre – Being and Nothingness – “My Death”(pp. 680-707)
W: Heidegger – Being and Time – “Dasein’s Possibility of Being-a-whole, and Being-towards-death” (selectionsfrom anthology)
Th: NO CLASS – Thanksgiving Break
Week 10
M: Nietzsche – The Gay Science – “The meaning of our cheerfulness” (pp. 279-80)
Nietzsche – The Gay Science – “The greatest weight” (pp. 273-74)
Nietzsche – The Will to Power – “And do you know what ‘the world’ is to me? …”
(aphorism 1067)
T: Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “Zarathustra’s prologue” (pp. 41-47)
Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “Of the way of the creator” (pp. 88-91)
Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “Of the blissful islands” (pp. 109-112)
Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “Of the tarantula” (pp. 123-126)
W: Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “Of self-overcoming” (pp. 136-139)
Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “Of the higher man” (pp. 296-306)
Th: No required readings – wrap up week’s discussion, reflect on course themes
Recommended reading: Rorty – “Pragmatism, Pluralism and Postmodernism” (pp. 262-
277)
*Final essay due on December 9th, by 2pm, in Philosophy Department Office PLC 338