Course module - Existentialism
Code : RELT30731 Credit rating: 20 Semester : 1
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Aims |
Objectives |
Assessment |
Information
|
Course Content |
Course Materials |
Tutors |
Timetable |
Teaching Methods |
Keywords
Aims
To provide students with a broad and deep understanding of Existentialism, its leading thinkers, central concepts, and its distinctiveness over and against other modes of thought.
Objectives (Learning Outcomes)
On successful completion of this course, you should normally:
1. have gained an understanding of the thought of some leading existentialist thinkers;
2. have acquired an understanding of central existentialist concepts;
3. have developed your skills of analysing and formulating arguments with reference to some of the central texts of Existentialist Philosophy;
4. be able to evaluate critically all of the above.
Assessment
1 x 2500 word formatively assessed essay
1 x 2500 word summatively assessed essay (40%)
1 x 2 hour written examination (60%)
Information
Free Choice : Yes
Course Content
This course unit provides students with an understanding of the key thinkers and concepts of Existentialist Philosophy. The first part of the course consists of an introduction to the thought of leading Existentialist thinkers, focusing on Pascal, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Jaspers, Marcel, and Sartre. The second part of the course examines some of the leading themes and concepts of Existentialist Philosophy, namely, existence, freedom, anxiety, guilt, and death. This part of the course unit will be primarily text and seminar based and will give students the opportunity to study in depth some of the classic texts of Existentialist Philosophy.
Course Materials
Tutor(s)
Law, Dr David
Timetable
Lecture: Friday 10:00 - 12:00
Seminar 1: Friday 12:00 - 13:00
Seminar 2: Friday 14:00 - 15:00
Teaching Methods
1 x 2-hour lecture, 1 x 1-hour seminar.
Preliminary reading
David Cooper, Existentialism (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd edn. 1999)
Hubert L. Dreyfus and Mark A, Wrathall (ed.), A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
Thomas R. Flynn, Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)
John Macquarrie, Existentialism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980)
Mary Warnock, Existentialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970)