University of Waterloo Department of Philosophy PHIL 265 The Existentialist Experience Winter 2017 Tuesday & Thursday 8:30-9:50am, Hagey Hall 139 Instructor Information Instructor: Nathan Haydon Office: Hagey Hall 339 Office Hours: Thursday 10:30am-11:30am Email: [email protected] Course Description This course is designed to introduce students to Existentialism. We shall use various types of writ- ings, including novels, to develop the background and generic features of existential thought as well as to critically assess the specific problems and solutions proposed by existentialists. The aim of the course is not just to introduce existentialist ideas, but to stimulate and encourage the development of the student’s own ideas. Course Goals and Learning Outcomes • Read and critically evaluate existentialist writings • Write clear, well-structured explanations and assessments of philosophical arguments • To be able to recognize existentialist themes in contemporary philosophy, along with exis- tentialism’s unique contribution towards resolving certain philosophical problems Required Texts Selections from: • Albert Camus, The Outsider • Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus • Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling • Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche • Additional essays from Peter Wessel Zapffe, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Simone Weil Course Requirements and Assessment Assignments: Four papers due Jan. 26th, Feb. 16th, March 9th, and March 30th. Guidelines for writ- ing these papers and their topics will be handed out in class. Each paper will be roughly 4 pages (~1000 words) in length. 1 Weights: Each paper will count for 23% of the final mark. Note: Class attendance and participation will prove to be a valuable asset when writing papers. Half of the participation marks are earned by attending one office hour at the beginning of the course and one subsequent office hour by the end of the course. Assessment Date of Evaluation Weighting Essay #1 Thursday January 26, 2017 23% Essay #2 Thursday February 16, 2017 23% Essay #3 Thursday March 9, 2017 23% Essay #4 Thursday March 30, 2017 23% Participation 8% Total 100% Course Outline Week Date Topic Readings Due 1 Jan. 3 & 5 Intro and Background Zapffe - The Last Messiah* 2 Jan. 10 & 12 Camus The Outsider (p. 3 – 73) 3 Jan. 17 & 19 Camus The Outsider (p. 74 - 111) The Myth of Sisyphus (Pref- ace - Philosophical Suicide, p. 50) 4 Jan. 24 & 26 Camus The Myth of Sisyphus, (Ab- surd Freedom - The Myth of Sisyphus, p. 51 – 123) 5 Jan. 31 & Feb. 2 Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling (Pref- ace - Problema I, p. 1 -67) 6 Feb. 7 & 9 Kierkegaard Fear & Trembling (Prob- lema II - Epilogue, p. 68- 123) 7 Feb. 14 & 16 Nietzsche Thus Spake Zarathustra (Prologue and Pt. 1 – 1,3,4,15,17,21,22) 2 Week Date Topic Readings Due Feb. 21 & 23 Reading Week 8 Feb. 28 & March Nietzsche Thus Spake Zarathustra (Pt. 2 2 – 2,7,12,15,19,20) (Pt. 3 – 2,5,7,11,12,13) 9 March 7 & 9 Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols (The Problem of Socrates - The “Improvers” of Mankind, p. 473 - 505) Sartre - Existentialism is a Humanism* 10 March 14 & 16 Simone de Beauvoir selection from The Ethics of Ambiguity* 11 March 21 & 23 Simone Weil The Illiad or the Poem of Force* The Love of God and Afflic- tion* 12 March 28 & 30 Simone Weil selection from Forms of the Implicit Love of God* Note: Consult the editor’s table of contents on p. 112 – 13 for the page numbers of Zarathustra’s speeches. Readings with (*) can be found online or on the course page in LEARN. Late Work Late assignments are subject to a penalty of 10% per day. Under special circumstances (illness, fam- ily emergency, etc.) extensions may be granted. Appropriate documentation, like a doctor’s note, will be requested. Course Communication Email: When contacting me via email, students can expect a response within 48 hrs during business days (Monday-Friday excluding holidays). Be sure to leave ample time for a response when dealing with time sensitive issues. Also, it is good practice to include “Phil 265” in the email subject line. Office Hours No appointment or prior arrangements are required to make use of scheduled office hours. Stu- dents will be met with on a first-come-first-serve basis. Alternative meeting times may also be pos- sible by appointment. 3 Information on Plagiarism Detection Students are not required to submit their work for this course to Turnitin. I may, however, should I suspect a portion of any student’s paper to be plagiarized, submit the paper to Turnitin for analysis. Should you not wish to have your work submitted to Turnitin, please inform me by the end of the second week of term, in which case further arrangements will be provided. Institutional-required statements for undergraduate course outlines approved by Senate Undergraduate Council, April 14, 2009 Cross-listed course Please note that a cross-listed course will count in all respective averages no matter under which rubric it has been taken. For example, a PHIL/PSCI cross-list will count in a Philosophy major aver- age, even if the course was taken under the Political Science rubric. Academic Integrity Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the Univer- sity of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagia- rism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Dis- cipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline. Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Stu- dent Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 - Stu- dent Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals. Other sources of information for students Academic Integrity (Arts) Academic Integrity Office (uWaterloo) Accommodation for Students with Disabilities Note for students with disabilities: The AccessAbility Services office, located in Needles Hall Room 4 1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for stu- dents with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you re- quire academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS office at the beginning of each academic term. 5 .