Existentialism and Phenomenology
Course Convenor: Matt Lee
Course Code: PHIL 1031
The course allows students to undertake close textual readings of key works in tow of the most important movements in modern continental thought: Existentialism (in the nineteenth century) and Phenomenology (in the twentieth century). The focus of the work of thinkers in these movements, underpins both the subject material and methodologies of the majority of the work in contemporary philosophical discourse in the Continental tradition.
Existentialism is not a homogenous movement and there is much disagreement on a host of philosophical, religious and political matters, amongst those who find themselves classified under this heading (indeed, a number reject the classification itself). All the thinkers in this collective however share a common concern with the individual, the nature of personal responsibility, and the danger inherent in submerging the individual within the larger public or common whole. Kierkegaard, for example, attacks 'herd mentality'; Heidegger distinguishes 'authentic' from mere 'social' existence; De Beauvoir emphasises the importance of free individual choice in the face of coercive social and political forces. Existentialism was founded in the nineteenth century but has remained a popular movement throughout the twentieth century and is currently undergoing a revival in the twenty-first. In the twentieth century, it came under the influence of a new methodology, known as Phenomenology. This method, originating with Edmund Husserl and pursued into the existentialist realm by Martin Heidegger, focuses on the essential structure of experience with the aim of establishing universal truths necessary to basis consciousness. Phenomenological enquiry thus opens up questions of how human beings should live; of what it means to exist as a human being; of what humans are in themselves and the meaning of life and death.
This course on Existentialism and Phenomenology is an option for second year students in philosophy and other disciplines. It is the level two component of a Continental strand running through all three years of the philosophy programme. It would be beneficial, but is not necessary or assumed that students studying this course have previously studied some philosophy at level one.
Key Texts
Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
Simone de Beauvoir, The Phenomenlogy of Perception
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenlogy of Perception
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
Edmund Hesserl, Cartesian Mediatations
Arthur Camus, The Philosophy of Existence
Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil