Existentialism Course

Lesson 1 • What Is Existentialism?

Defines existentialism as a philosophical orientation centered on individual existence, freedom, and meaning. Grounds the chapter by framing the central questions the course addresses.

Lesson 2 • Existentialism's Major Branches

Distinguishes theistic, atheistic, and phenomenological strands of existentialism. Prepares students to read thinkers across these branches without conflating their premises.

Lesson 3 • Historical Roots and Precursors

Traces intellectual ancestors from ancient philosophy through 19th-century thought. Shows how existentialism emerged as a reaction to rationalism and idealism.

Lesson 1 • Heidegger's Being-in-the-World

Examines Heidegger's reorientation of phenomenology toward the question of Being. Introduces Dasein, thrownness, and care as central existential structures.

Lesson 2 • Applying Phenomenological Description

Guides students in practicing first-person phenomenological analysis of everyday situations. Builds the descriptive skill used throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • Husserl and the Phenomenological Turn

Explains Husserl's method of bracketing assumptions to describe pure experience. Establishes the methodological toolkit existentialists inherited and transformed.

Lesson 1 • The Ethical Stage of Existence

Examines the ethical stage as commitment to universal duty and self-consistency. Reveals its limits when universal ethics conflicts with singular personal demands.

Lesson 2 • Despair and the Self

Analyzes Kierkegaard's concept of despair as a failure to relate properly to oneself. Connects despair to the existentialist theme of authentic selfhood.

Lesson 3 • Subjectivity as Truth

Introduces Kierkegaard's claim that truth is subjectivity, opposing Hegelian objective systems. Establishes why personal commitment, not abstract reason, defines authentic existence.

Lesson 4 • The Aesthetic Stage of Existence

Analyzes the aesthetic stage as a life governed by pleasure, novelty, and avoidance of boredom. Shows how aesthetic existence collapses into despair without deeper commitment.

Lesson 1 • The Death of God and Nihilism

Examines Nietzsche's proclamation that God is dead and its consequences for values and meaning. Establishes nihilism as the crisis existentialism must overcome.

Lesson 2 • Will to Power as Life Principle

Interprets the will to power as self-overcoming and creative expansion rather than domination. Connects it to Nietzsche's broader vision of flourishing existence.

Lesson 3 • Eternal Recurrence and Affirmation

Explores eternal recurrence as a thought experiment demanding full affirmation of life. Analyzes amor fati as the existential attitude of loving one's fate.

Lesson 4 • The Overman and Self-Creation

Examines the Overman as Nietzsche's ideal of self-created values beyond conventional morality. Evaluates its relevance to existentialist themes of authenticity and freedom.

Lesson 1 • Radical Freedom and Responsibility

Examines Sartre's claim that humans are condemned to be free and fully responsible for choices. Connects freedom to anguish, abandonment, and despair.

Lesson 2 • The Look and Intersubjectivity

Explores how the Other's gaze objectifies the self and generates shame and conflict. Introduces Sartre's account of social existence as fundamentally conflictual.

Lesson 3 • Bad Faith and Self-Deception

Analyzes bad faith as the attempt to deny freedom by treating oneself as a fixed thing. Students identify bad faith patterns in everyday behavior and social roles.

Lesson 4 • Existentialism as Humanism

Examines Sartre's public defense of existentialism against critics from Marxism and Christianity. Clarifies how existence preceding essence implies a humanist ethics.

Lesson 1 • Absurdism in Literature and Art

Analyzes how Camus embeds absurdist philosophy in fiction and drama. Students trace philosophical arguments through narrative and character.

Lesson 2 • The Rebel and Political Ethics

Examines Camus's extension of revolt into political and ethical resistance against oppression. Connects individual revolt to solidarity and limits on violence.

Lesson 3 • Philosophical Suicide and Leap of Faith

Analyzes Camus's critique of thinkers who escape the absurd through religious or philosophical leaps. Distinguishes genuine revolt from evasion.

Lesson 4 • The Absurd Condition

Defines the absurd as the clash between human longing for meaning and the world's silence. Establishes absurdism as a starting point distinct from existentialism proper.

Lesson 1 • Aging, the Body, and Existential Limits

Explores de Beauvoir's phenomenology of aging and bodily decline as existential experiences. Extends existentialist analysis beyond youth and peak capacity.

Lesson 2 • The Second Sex: Woman as Other

Examines de Beauvoir's analysis of woman as the absolute Other constructed by patriarchal culture. Connects Sartrean ontology to feminist critique of social roles.

Lesson 3 • Situated Freedom and Oppression

Analyzes how material and social conditions limit but do not eliminate freedom. Critiques Sartre's abstract freedom by grounding it in concrete situations.

Lesson 1 • Critiques and Contemporary Relevance

Surveys major critiques from structuralism, feminism, and postcolonialism. Assesses what existentialism contributes to 21st-century philosophical and cultural debates.

Lesson 2 • Existentialism and Political Thought

Analyzes existentialist contributions to political philosophy, including critiques of totalitarianism and colonialism. Evaluates Sartre's and Fanon's political engagements.

Lesson 3 • Existential Psychotherapy

Examines how existentialist concepts were adapted into therapeutic practice by Frankl, Yalom, and others. Connects philosophical ideas to clinical applications.

Lesson 4 • Existentialism in Literature and Film

Traces existentialist themes across canonical literary and cinematic works. Students analyze how artistic form communicates philosophical content.