PHI 309 - Existentialism (1)

The course provides students with an in-depth understanding of the work of some of the greatest thinkers in the Existentialist tradition, including, but not limited to: Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Jean Paul Sartre, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Each of these thinkers has tried to understand what life can and should amount to in our modern world. In the light of what these philosophers say, we shall explore such questions as: the loss of faith in a secularized world, the possibility of commitment, the question of what we can know, the ultimate nature of reality, the limits of science, the place of the individual in society, the possibility of authentic existence, the nature of love, the human capacity for free will, and the limitations of morality in determining how we should act. This course also counts toward the RUS major/minor. Prerequisite: sophomore standing. Alternate years.
(Humanities) (Writing Encounter)