Existentialism and Beyond

Existentialism and Beyond Duke TIP at Texas A&M Instructor: Meredith Farmer TA: Tyler Jagel

What they have in common is simply the fact that they believe that existence comes before essence – or, if you will, that we must begin from the subjective. What exactly do we mean by that?

– Jean-Paul Sartre, “Existentialism is a Humanism”

Texts:  Basic Writings of Existentialism (Modern Library Classics).  Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy.  Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Notes from the Underground.  Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self-Reliance and Other Essays.  Existentialism ed. Robert Solomon.  Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science.  Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra.  Additional materials supplied by the instructors.

Selected Films:  American Beauty  I Heart Huckabees  Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead  Waiting for Godot

Instructor Philosophy: You are not at TIP to earn a grade. You are here to learn about philosophy, to enjoy the educational process, and to converse with your peers. We want you to enjoy this course, and we hope that you will let us know if there is anything that we can do to make it a better educational experience for you. Feel free to talk to us about anything – questions that you have or problems that you might be having. We will be working with difficult but stimulating material, and there will be lots of things to think about. Some of the reading might not come easily to you, and there will be questions that you do not have immediate answers to. Rest assured: this is what we expect. It is a typical experience. Tom and I have years of experience reading philosophy, and some days some passages are hard for us. Similarly, philosophy’s questions are open-ended. We do not have answers to all of the things that we will ask you. Rather, we ask because we believe in the exercise of trying to answer and the benefits of attempting to form solid and intelligent opinions. Finally, we will be questioning things that you may have never questioned before and that may make you uncomfortable. Hopefully these things will either broaden your horizons or help you to solidify your own beliefs. That being said – even when certain beliefs are being questioned, it is extremely important that every person in our classroom approaches his or her work with an open mind and respects and listens to everyone else. Many of the world’s greatest changes have been set into motion by individuals whose ideas differ from the norm.

1 Methods of Evaluation: You will be evaluated based on your attentiveness during reading times, the in-class essays that you produce, your participation in class discussions, and the level of respect that you convey toward both your classmates and us. We recognize that different people learn and demonstrate what they have learned in different ways, and we will keep that fact in mind. One caveat, though: Some of you might not be entirely comfortable speaking in class, but some participation is required. Our course will be run like a seminar – it will be driven by your discussions, and it will only go as far as you are willing to take it. We need to hear from everyone in order to make the most of our time. Beyond that, the ability to speak confidently is one that will serve you well, and it is worth mentioning that I have a tremendous amount of respect for students who are able to ask questions – especially about things that you think should be obvious. If you have a simple question or want clarification on a topic, chances are that someone else is wondering about the very same thing. Similarly, some of you will have developed less desirable discussion traits during the course of your middle and high school careers. You might be used to dominating conversations, which is perfectly understandable, but if this is a habit that you have, please do your best to remember to let other, less gregarious people become a part of our conversations. Some of you also might be tempted to hold on to your best ideas or ideas that seem slightly off topic and to “save” them for essays. Instead, please put them out on the table. It can be rewarding to see where they lead us. Whatever you do, please don’t create a competitive environment. We are a community of scholars. While your previous classroom experiences may make academic production seem like a solitary enterprise, it turns out that it is almost always collaboration (in the sciences researchers work together in labs; in the humanities academics read papers to each other at conferences and have them reviewed by peers before their publication). Collegiality is invaluable.

There will be a final project, and obviously it will play a role in our evaluation of your work. Its specifications (length, available topics, time consumed) will depend on the path that the course takes, though if the course goes as planned, you will be able to research, write, present, and/or examine any relevant topic of your choosing so long as your work is serious and authentic.

Course Description Existentialism is much deeper than its stereotype. It is not about Frenchmen sitting in cafes wearing black; it is a process – a way of responding to culture, to the alienation experienced in modern existence, and to the idea that the world is a fixed, defined system that leaves us without freedom. Existentialism is a personal philosophy, and existentialists share a trust in lived experience over elaborate theories – they give power to individual existence. They contemplate the origin of meaning and value, the nature of the self and freedom, the feeling of anxiety, and the criteria for knowledge. Nietzsche despairs that “God is dead, and we have killed him,” Heidegger explains that we have forgotten the importance and power of Being, and Sartre writes that “man is condemned to be free.” In this course, we will discuss these ideas and more, including the philosophies that led to Existentialism and the way that it influences contemporary philosophy and culture. We will spend most of our time reading Existentialist works and discussing their relationship to us and to each other, but we will also bring in music and poetry in order to express our own understanding of Existentialism’s questions. You will be encouraged to develop your own voice as distinct from but informed by these profound thinkers.

2 Monday: Introductions (to the course and to each other) Definitions: Existential, Self, Being, Consciousness, Faith, Despair, Anxiety, Freedom. Some basic terms: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ontology. Historical overview. Descartes Introduction. Read Descartes’ Meditation I

I. Existentialism & Ontology Tuesday: Discuss Meditation I Open Question: How can you prove your existence? Descartes’ Meditation II Writing Assignment #1 Discussion: Do you think Descartes is right about the self? Read part of Meditation VI Wednesday: Criticism of Descartes Read excerpt from Emerson’s “Nature” (Me and Not-Me) Read excerpts from Pascal’s Pensees. Sartre Introduction: Lecture on The Transcendence of the Ego. Read “The Look” (a ‘Me’ in the midst of others). Sartre’s Being-in-itself, Being-for-itself, and Being-for-others. Thursday: Watch I Heart Huckabees. Lecture on Heidegger. Read Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism.” Discuss abandonment and bad faith. Start reading Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground. Friday: Notes from the Underground. Kierkegaard and Despair: The Sickness Unto Death. Conferences: How are things going? Is the class meeting your expectations? Saturday: Watch American Beauty. Writing Assignment #2. Monday: Read from Nietzsche’s Geneaology of Morals. Compare and contrast bad faith, despair, and bad conscience. Discuss ressentiment. Start Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Tuesday: Emerson’s “The Oversoul”. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Lecture: The trajectory through Emerson, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre.

3 II. Existentialism & Epistemology: Wednesday Nietzsche’s “God is Dead” passage. Divide into groups and analyze then present on aphorisms from The Gay Science, Book III. Introduction to Phenomenology and Hermeneutics: You are your history. Nietzsche’s The Gay Science. Thursday Nietzsche’s little ship aphorism (Gay Science, 124). Paul Tillich: Faith as the ultimate concern & a centered, centering act. Kierkegaard’s Fear & Trembling. D. Anthony Storm’s Kierkegaard Website: research and present on other texts. Friday: Writing Assignment #3. Read “Self-Reliance” and discuss the ‘God paradox’ in Emerson. Lecture/discussion/a little psychoanalysis regarding Nietzsche’s bout with God, Heidegger’s background, and the question: does faith underlie all of western metaphysics? Nietzsche’s “How the real world became a fable” passage from Twilight of the Idols. Saturday: Discuss projects. Watch Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Conferences during the movie.

III. Pitfalls of Existentialism: Monday: Work on projects. Camus and the Absurd: The Myth of Sisyphus. Discuss Existentialism and the problem of relativism.

Tuesday: Work on projects. Lecture on Foucault: To what extent are we influenced by social forces and contexts? Watch Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Wednesday: Finish projects. Presentation on the scientistic objection to Existentialism.

IV. Conclusions: Thursday: Present projects. Existential themes in music? Friday: Conclusions and a return to our ‘definitions’. Go over rubrics individually.

We will begin by attempting to define terms that are often associated with Existentialism: self, being, consciousness, faith, despair, anxiety, freedom, and existential. Then we will discuss our current understandings of the terms and try to reach common (and deeper) ground before moving on to important background material (definitions of terms and a historical overview). We will work with Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes – often considered the founding piece of Modern philosophy and a work that many Existentialists wrestle with – to finish laying the groundwork for the course. Then we will begin to critique his work by looking to several of Pascal’s Pensees (considered a precursor to Existentialism) and passages from Emerson’s “Nature.” From that point we will look to Existentialism thematically rather than marching through a series of authors. We will work with ontological questions related to Existentialism (what it means to be) and epistemological questions (how it is that we know) before concluding with work on individual projects and discussions of the pitfalls, difficulty, or problems associated with Existentialism. Our work with Existentialism proper will begin with the only thinker to claim the title ‘Existentialist’ – Jean-Paul Sartre. We will contrast his view of the self to Descartes and see that he is more concerned with experiences, the world, and other people. We will watch I Heart Huckabees, which will entrench us in existential questions. Then we will read the most common introduction to Existentialism: Sartre’s essay “Existentialism is a Humanism” which will lead us to understand concepts like abandonment by God (Sartre is an atheist) and bad faith (failing to take responsibility for one’s existential choices). Work with Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground and Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra will give us a better sense of the results of abandonment and existing in a world where we are free and responsible. Work with Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death and his explanation of despair along with Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals and his discussion of bad conscience will give us a deeper understanding of the effects of denying the power of the self. Oscar winning film American Beauty will help us tie these ideas together at the same time that we become clear on their differences. We will conclude our work with ontology by looking to Emerson’s essay “The Oversoul” and discussing the trajectory from his work through Nietzsche and Heidegger to Sartre. We will begin our epistemology segment with contemplation of Nietzsche’s famous claim that “God is Dead” and discussing its implications. If there is no God, universal truths and ethical standards become extremely difficult (if not impossible) to defend, and we will try to sort out how we could or do know if Nietzsche’s view is right. Then we will look to several thinkers (Paul Tillich and Soren Kierkegaard) who are considered religious existentialists and see how their understanding varies. This work will culminate in work with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance,” a question of whether faith underlies all of our beliefs including beliefs held by individuals who claim to lack faith, and Nietzsche’s insight that this kind of faith has led to a devaluing of the world that is around us. We will watch a film of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and discuss the paralysis that comes from an inability to know; then we will look to Camus’ notion of the absurd and ask whether knowledge is worthwhile.

Finally, we will begin to draw conclusions. Students will embark on an independent research project or paper. We will discuss problems that Existentialism has run into, from what happens when one individual’s choice conflicts with another individual’s choice (the problem of relativism), the extent to which we are influenced by social forces and contexts whether

5 we choose to be or not (Foucault’s discourses), and that biological limitations to our freedom may be extremely strong. Last of all, we will look to poetry and music that will allow us to apply the work of the philosophers that we have studied to different mediums. We will also return to our definitions in order to see how the course has changed our perceptions.