Tentative Schedule – Phenomenology and Existentialism

 

 

Secondary Sources

 

Tips on Essay Writing

 

Key to Writing Errors and Abbreviations

 

 

T 9/4                Introduction to course

 

            Existentialism

 

R 9/6                Heidegger, The Concept of Time 1-10

                        Topic: Anxiety and authenticity

T 9/11              The Concept of Time 11-22

R 9/13              Sartre, “Existentialism and Humanism”

                        Topic: What is existentialism? What is the nature of moral responsibility?

T 9/18              Student presentations on other prominent existentialists              Guidelines

 

            Phenomenology

                         

R 9/20              Husserl, “Philosophy as a Rigorous Science” 71-83, 122-129;

Zahavi, Husserl’s Phenomenology 7-13

Topic: Husserl’s critique of naturalism and historicism   

T 9/25              Zahavi 13-27

                        Topic: Intentionality

R 9/27              Zahavi 27-39

                        Topic: The intuition of essences

T 10/2              Sartre, The Imaginary 179-188

                        Topic: Sartre’s version of phenomenology                     Paper #1 Guidelines

 

            Authenticity

 

R 10/4              Heidegger, Basic Problems of Phenomenology 170-171, 287-288;

Being and Time 436-439, 448

                        Topic: Anxiety and Authenticity

 

T 10/9              Sartre, Being and Nothingness part 1 ch.2, 86-90, 96-105

(Recommended: 105-116)

                        Topic: Bad faith

 

R 10/11            Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew 89-109, 136-139

                        Topic: Authenticity, Paper #1 Due

 

T 10/16            Sartre, The Age of Reason 370-397                            Summaries of AR

                        Topic: Authenticity in existentialist literature and film

 

R 10/18            Film: Herzog, My Best Fiend

 

What is Creativity?

 

T 10/23            Topic: Creativity and Authentic Action

 

R 10/25            Cont.                                                                            Paper #2 Guidelines

 

            Social Identity and Political Engagement

 

T 10/30            Heidegger, “The Self-Assertion of the German University

Topic: Heidegger’s relation to National Socialism, moral luck

 

R 11/1              Sartre, Being and Nothingness 301-303, 340-355, 383-387

                        Topic: The Gaze, Paper #2 Due

 

(F 11/2             Withdrawal Deadline)

 

T 11/6              Beauvoir, After the War 170-175, 198-204; Hard Times 78-86;

                        Fallaize, The Novels of Simone de Beauvoir 98-101

Topic: The Gaze cont.; Sartre and Beauvoir’s turn toward Marxism in the late 1940’s

 

R 11/8              Topic: Marxism cont.

 

T 11/13            Beauvoir, Introduction to The Second Sex

                        Topic: Gender

 

R 11/15            Fanon, “The Lived Experience of the Black”

                        Topic: Race

 

T 11/20            Wikipedia article on the Algerian War; Beauvoir, Hard Times 87-93, 102-105, 177-183, 191-193, 222-228, 267-268, 320-325, 334-336, 344-346, 364

                        Film: Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers

Topic: Sartre and Beauvoir, the anti-colonial movement, and Algeria

 

R 11/22            Thanksgiving

 

T 11/27            Valls, “Can Terrorism be Justified?”

                        Topic: Violence and terrorism                                       Paper #3 Guidelines

 

R 11/29            Sartre, “Elections: A Trap for Fools” (Recommended: “The Progressive-Regressive Method” 85-100)                                                  Later Sartre Links

                        Topic: Sartre’s later thought on social identity

 

            History and Volk in the Later Heidegger

 

T 12/4              “Memorial Address”; “The Question Concerning Technology” 3-23

                        Topic: Technology

Paper #3 Due

 

 

R 12/6              QCT 23-35, “Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry”

                        Topic: Incipient thinking and the preparation for another beginning

 

T 12/11            “The End of Philosophy and the Beginning of Thinking,” “Building, Dwelling, Thinking”

Topic: The history of being                                            Paper #4 Guidelines

 

R 12/13            BDT cont., “Poetically Man Dwells”

                        Topic: The relation of philosophy and poetry

 

Final Exam     T 12/18            12:45 – 2:45 pm