PHL 334k- NIHILISM AND EXISTENTIALISM (SARTRE & CAMUS) T-TH
12:30-2:00 WAG 208 OFFICE HRS T & TH 2:00-2:40 Waggener 310-C
We will begin with Nietzsche’s attack on traditional philosophical and religious
justifications for social and individual ethical frameworks based on views about “man”
and “human nature.” This will involve a consideration of Nietzsche’s purported
“nihilism,” and his influence on the development of 20th century existentialism and the
purported nihilism in works of “the school of Paris”—(Malraux, Sartre, DeBeauvoir, --
and—Camus, etc.). The focus will be on philosophical essays, plays and novels* of
Camus and Sartre and the different political and individual ethical views they
develop—Sartre’s “existentialism” and “existential psychology” and Camus’ “ethics of
absurdity and rebellion”—which led to the (once celebrated) Sartre-Camus “debate”
over political violence, rebellion, nihilism, and Marxism. GRADING TWO EXAMS (40
% EACH ) + CLASS PARTICIPATION + SHORT PAPER (4-5 PAGES) --20%
READING-------------TEXTS: $$
Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil Random House ISBN 0679724656 12
Camus Caligula and Three Other Plays Knoph—ISBN 0394702077 13
The Plague*, The Fall* …. Selected Essays 23
(includes The Myth of Sisyphus) Everyman’s Library Knoph
ISBN: 1400042550 `
Sartre Essays in Existentialism Kensington Publishing Co 15
ed. W. Baskin ISBN-0806501626
The Transcendence of the Ego FARRAR/STRAUS 10
ISBN- 0809015455
Nausea* NEW DIRECTIONS ISBN-0811201880 12
OTHER READING:
Kierkegaard from Fear and Trembling on Blackboard and on Web
Dostoyevsky from The Brothers Karamazov—The Grand Inquisitor
on Blackboard and on Web
de Beauvoir from The Ethics of Ambiguity on Blackboard and on Web
Book Forum review of commentaries on Blackboard and on Web
AUG
27 Introduction—course description
SEPT
1 3 NIETZSCHE, PARTS I-V, pp. 202-210
8
10 CAMUS—Camus, Plotinus and Augustine
CALIGULA & THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS
15 17
22 24 THE PLAGUE
29 EXAM 1 – CAMUS & NIETZSCHE
OCT
1 SARTRE: EXISTENTIALISM-HUMANISM,
NAUSEA
6
8 SARTRE FILM (SARTRE BY HIMSELF)
13
15 TRANSCENDENCE OF THE EGO
20 22
27 29
NOV
3
5 QUESTIONS FOR SARTRE EXAM DISTRIBUTED
10 EXAM 2—SARTRE
12 CAMUS—THE PLAGUE, REFLECTIONS on the
GUILLOTINE, THE JUST
17
19 SARTRE—BEING AND NOTHINGNESS SELECTIONS,
SARTRE- CAMUS CONTROVERSY, DE BEAUVOIR –
PAPER TOPICS DIST.
24 NO CLASS—PREPARE PAPER FOR TURN-IN DEC. 1
26 THANKSGIVING
DEC
1 SARTRE-CAMUS-DEBEAUVOIR CONTIN. PAPER DUE
3