Philosophy 7

This course is an introduction to existentialist philosophy. Our central theme will be the reflective relation between existential and tragic thought. We will ask the following questions: What is it to be human? How is human existence related to the divine? How is human existence related to itself? To what extent does the decline of religious authority raise the specter of nihilism? We will give thought to ancient Greek tragic poetry by Sophocles and Euripedes, early Romantic literature, twentieth century films by Jean-Luc Godard and Ousmane Sembène, literature by Franz Kafka, painting by Frida Kahlo, philosophical prose by Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Franz Fanon, and more contemporary essays by Maria Lugones, and Angela Davis.