Existentialism

Part I of a two-part course
with Dr Nicholas Joll

Part I – Saturday 10.00 – 11.30 

From 13th April – 11th May

The Black Shed

Wivenhoe Bookshop 

Weekly Topics

1. What is it?
2. Phenomenology
3. Transcendental philosophy
4. Essence and existence (I)
5. Essence and existence (II)

Existentialism became a vogue but it was also a serious philosophy (though some of the philosophers at issue rejected the label ‘existentialism’, sometimes in favour of the term ‘existential phenomenology’). Existentialist philosophy was serious in two ways: it provided profound answers to questions of theoretical philosophy; and it tried hard, though within limits and arguably overly tight ones, to teach the good life. We will treat Heidegger (most of all), Sartre (a little less) and Merleau-Ponty (probably to a lesser extent yet) and make mention of other existentialists; and we will treat critics and descendants of existentialism.

The course will suit those new or at least fairly new to philosophy. The two parts of the course are bookable separately though having done part one will help with part two.

No reading is necessary but I recommend David Cooper’s Existentialism: A Reconstruction (second edition, Blackwell, 1999). That book is superb but also, and mainly because it makes one think, hard. There are additional or alternative introductory works. Those works are easier in a way than the Cooper, though they are primary texts. They are: Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism (Methuen, 1948); Merleau‑Ponty, The World of Perception (Routledge, 2008).

The fee for this 5 week course is £70 which includes a continental breakfast of croissants, conserves and fresh coffee.