Existentialism

APHI 336, Spring 2006

MWF 10:25-11:20, HU123

http://www.fecundity.com/courses

P.D. Magnus

Office hours: Tu 11:00-noon, W 2:00-3:00, and by app't

Texts: A course packet is available at Shipmates in Stuyvesent Plaza, across the street from campus. [CP]

The following are available at the campus bookstore and at Mary Jane's:

Sartre, Being and Nothingness [BN]

ISBN: 0-671-86780-6

de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity [EA]

ISBN: 080650160X

Requirements:

25% paper

25% first mid-term exam

25% second mid-term exam

25% final exam

Class participation: Participation in class discussion is required. Exemplary participation will add to your grade, up to two-thirds of a letter grade.

Academic honesty:The paper should include citations to any works cited or consulted, as well as acknowledgments of helpful interactions. Cheating will not be tolerated.

The paper: The paper will be five pages on an assigned topic. It will be considered late if it is not handed in at or before the beginning of class on the day it is due. Each day late will result in a loss of one letter grade.

Absences: Students who will need to miss exam dates for foreseeable reasons should discuss them with the professor at the beginning of the term. If an emergency results in absence, the student should contact the professor as soon as possible. Make-up exams will be given only for documented, excused absences.

Schedule of topics: Specific readings may take more or less time than indicated, but due dates and the dates of exams are fixed.

Week 1

jan23: Introduction

jan25-7: What's existentialism? Read CP1

Week 2

jan 30: cont.

feb 1-3: Literature and death. Read CP2-3

Week 3

feb6-10: The Present Age. Read C4

Week 4

feb13: a first take on Sickness unto Death.

Read C5, pp. 13-21

feb15-17: more Sickness Unto Death.

Read C5, pp. 22-42

Winter break

Week 5

feb27-mar1: cont. Read C5, pp. 42-74

mar3: cont. [PAPER DUE]

Week 6

mar6: The phenomenological tradition

mar8: Negation and nothingness.

Read BN pp. 33-44, 56-69

mar10: FIRST MIDTERM EXAM

Week 7

mar13-15: Bad faith.

Read BN pp. 86-90, 96-116

mar17: The look of the other.

Read BN pp. 301-303, 340-355

Week 8

mar20-2: Freedom!

Read BN pp. 619-629, 647-653, 701-711

mar24: Implications. Read BN pp. 785-798

Week 9

mar27-mar31: cont.

Week 10

apr3-5: Another viewpoint.

Read Marcel, CP6

apr7: SECOND MIDTERM EXAM

Spring break

Week 11

apr17: The ethics of ambiguity.

Read EA ch.I

apr19-21: Relations with others.

Read EA ch.II

Week 12

apr24-26: The positive project.

Read EA ch.III §§1-2

apr28: The future. Read EA ch.III §§3-4

Week 13 may1-may5

may1: Ambiguity. Read EA ch.II §5

may3: cont. Read EA conclusion

may5: cont.

Week 14

may8: So what was existentialism?

Final Exam mon may15, 10:30am-12:30pm