Prompt:
- What is the meaning of ‘existence’ in the context of existentialist thought, and what are the differences between existence and essence? Get into detail as you analyze each of these concepts and show how this distinction is a crucial part of what makes existentialism unique.
- Write an essay describing the historical, geographical, and political context in which existentialism grew and thrived. Theorize as to the influence of theme/context overall on the development of this new philosophy.
Requirements:
- Write a paper answering one of the prompts above.
- The paper relates to subtopics within existentialism
- “alienation,” “anxiety,” “crisis,” “death of God,” “nihilism,” “rebellion or revolution.”
- Can relate to other subtopics these are to serve as examples.
- 16 pages double spaced.
- Minimum of five sources.
Course background/Context:
The most intense public encounter between Existentialism and Marxism occurred in immediate post-WWII Europe, its structure remaining alive internationally. Existentialist questions have been traced from pre-Socratic thinkers through Dante, Shakespeare, and Cervantes onward; just as roots of modern materialism extend to Epicurus and Lucretius, or Leopardi. This course will focus on differing theories and concomitant practices concerned with “alienation,” “anxiety,” “crisis,” “death of God,” “nihilism,” “rebellion or revolution.” Crucial are possible relations between fiction and non-fiction; also among philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and political theory. Other authors may include: Althusser, de Beauvoir, Beckett, Büchner, Camus, Che, Dostoevsky, Fanon, Genet, Gide, Gramsci, O. Gross, Hamsun, Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers, C.L.R. James, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Lagerkvist, Lacan, Lenin, Marx, Merleau-Ponty, Mishima, G. Novack, Nietzsche, Ortega, Pirandello, W. Reich, Sartre, Shestov, Tillich, Unamuno. There is also cinema.
