Key facts

Type	Weekly Classes
Location	Reading
Address	Room 110 Building 22 London Road Campus Reading.
Dates	Tue 23 Apr to Tue 25 Jun 2013 Day: Tuesday Time of meeting: 7.00-9.00pm Number of meetings: 10
Subject area(s)	Philosophy
CATS points	10
Fees	From £145.00
Application status	In progress - closed to new applications
Course code	R12P425PHW
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Overview

This course is aimed at introducing students to the key features of the existential movement and its progress within continental thought, taking into account its earliest origins and the contemporary views it influenced.

Description

Existentialism is a philosophical movement that arguably began in the works of the German Idealists in the early Nineteenth Century. These thinkers shared a philosophical concern over the nature of the self that then began to develop in the works of the likes of Kierkegaard into something that became more recognisable as existentialism. With its focus on the individual as autonomous and self-defining, existentialism addressed issues like subjectivity, self-consciousness and living an 'authentic' existence that was the result of making real choices. As Sartre put it in the Twentieth Century, 'man first of all exists, and defines himself afterwards'.

Programme details

Week 1: An introduciton to existentialism
Week 2: Schelling, Hegel and spirit
Week 3: Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel
Week 4: Kierkegaard: the 'first' existentialist?
Week 5: Nietzsche and passion
Week 6: Nietzsche and suspicion
Week 7: Heidegger and existential phenomenology
Week 8: Sartre and the French movement
Week 9: Sartre on morality
Week 10: Camus and after

Background reading:
Ed. Kaufman, W. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre
Eds. Hong & Hong The Essential Kierkegaard
Carlisle, C. Kierkegaard: A Guide for the Perplexed
Kaufman, W. Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist
Inwood, M. Heidegger: A Very Short Introduction
Wartenberg, T. Existentialism: A Beginner's Guide

Staff

Course aims

Course aim:
The aim of this course is to provide students with a good understanding of existententialism, its key concepts and key thinkers.

Course objectives:
1. To enable students to appreciate how subjectivity and relativism can be valuable philosophicla approaches.
2. To situate existentialism within continental philosophy as a whole.
3. To look at the impact of existentialism on religion, morality and politics.

Assessment methods

The assessment will follow option A with four short assignments over the course; one of these may be a presentation.

Teaching methods

The sessions will be in a seminar format including both presentation of the key ideas and open discussion based around short extracts and articles. Students will have the opportunity, if they wish, to give a short presentation as a part of their portfolio assessment.

Teaching outcomes

By the end of the course students will be expected to:
1. Be able to discuss some of the major concerns of the philosophers studied.
2. Develop their critical and analytical skills through the reading, the portfolio and the sessions.
3. Enable a keener sense of inter-communication through group discussion.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Home/EU fee: £145.00

Non-EU fee: £145.00

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