Existentialism: God, Freedom, and the Ambiguity of Self-Consciousnes

Learn to answer fundamental questions about life with our philosophy short courses online & in Sydney.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” This course will offer a survey of the major topics and figures of Existential philosophy, from Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard to Emil Cioran and Simone Weil. Students can expect to find all the usual themes covered here: Nihilism, the Death of God, Anxiety, Freedom, Responsibility, Authenticity, and the passionate call to live one’s life in heroic defiance of a meaningless world that lacks any ultimate justification. However, we will also foreground some issues that tend to fall by the wayside in similar courses on Existentialism, such as Feminism, Anti-Colonial struggle, and the mystical experience of God through the tremendous encounter with the Other.

Existentialism is usually portrayed as a rather gloomy philosophy. But despite being preoccupied with categories like anguish and death, each of the philosophers covered in this course display an unrelenting commitment to living deliberately and learning how to draw breath from the absurdity of existence. As Sartre said, “life begins on the other side of despair.” Between the pages of these profound thinkers, the life-pulse of Being beats with vigour. Each entreats us to feel the disquieting strangeness of being that entity whose being consists not in what it is or has been but in what it is

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Gain an understanding of the major figures and themes of Existentialism
• Not merely tolerate but affirm the experience of ambiguity as a fundamental precondition for ethics, and analyse existence with the intricate profundity it demands
• Deepen their sense of individuality and relations with others
• Cultivate a sensitivity to the existence of others who transcend our egoistic attempts to define or label them

Course content

What is covered in this philosophy course?

Week 1: The Problem of Nihilism and the Leap of Faith: Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard

• The Death of God and the Critique of Christian Morality
• The doctrine of Eternal Return and how to “Become who you are”
• “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom” The Love of Paradox and Stages on Life’s Way
• The Teleological Suspension of the Ethical and the Leap of Faith

Week 2: The Phenomenological Method and The Life-World: Edmund Husserl

• Intentionality, Free Variation, and Transcendental Consciousness
• The Modes of Internal Time-Consciousness
• The Problem of Other Minds and the Life-World

Week 3: The Destruction of Metaphysics and the Question of the Meaning of Being: Martin Heidegger

• Fundamental Ontology and the Existential Analysis of Dasein’s Being-in-the-world
• “Everyone is the other and no one is himself” Fallenness and “The They”
• Moods, Death, Choice and Authenticity

Week 4: The Upsurge of Freedom: Jean-Paul Sartre

• The Plenitude of Things and the Nihilative power of Self-Consciousness
• Bad Faith, Being-For-Others, and The Gaze
• “Existence precedes essence” Anguish, Responsibility and Taking Action

Week 5: The Absurdity of Existence: Albert Camus

• The Problem of Suicide, Lucidity, and Living Fully without Appeal
• Estrangement and Creative Passion
• Happiness as the Affirmation of Struggle

Week 6: Phenomenology From the Other’s Point of View: Simone de Beauvoir and Frantz Fanon

• The Second Sex and The Ethics of Ambiguity
• “Biology is Destiny”  Embodying Otherness and the possibility of Immanent Transcendence
• “Having to be what they say I am” Black Skin, White Masks
• Gender, Race, Class, and Revolutionary Violence

Week 7: The Mystical Encounter of the Other: Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas

• Trembling before the Other as if in the Presence of God
• “There is no I without a Thou” The Relation between Self and Other as fundamental
• The Metaphysical Desire for an Invisible Beyond and the Necessity of Separated Existence
• Experiencing Infinity within the Finite through the Ethical Demand of The Face

Week 8: Pessimism, Decay, and the Deliverances of Grace: Emil Cioran and Simone Weil

• Cosmic Despair, the Wound of Consciousness, and Anti-Natalism
• Gravity and Grace Decreative Self-Emptying
• The Courage for Suffering and Cultivating an Attentive Openness for the Miraculous

Intended audience

Who is this philosophy course for?

• Anyone who wants to enrich their life by thoughtfully engaging the paradoxes of existence. This course is beginner-friendly, no prior background is necessary. As far as possible, clear explanations of key concepts and theories will be provided each week, along with helpful learning resources like short readings, podcasts, videos and artworks.

Course Venue

Online via Zoom

• Zoom details will be emailed to you with your enrolment confirmation
• Requirement: A device and stable internet connection

Course Materials

What to bring to class

• Notebook and pen
• A willingness to engage and learn!