PHI 91 — The Meaning of Life: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and More
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Frederick M. Dolan
Date(s): Jun 25—Aug 27
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Jun 27
Unit(s): 2
Status: Open
Quarter: Summer
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 25—Aug 27
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Jun 27
Instructor(s): Frederick M. Dolan
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
What is the meaning of life? The question invites religious and spiritual answers. But it’s also a problem that philosophers try to approach systematically. Søren Kierkegaard finds meaning in the self’s ability to connect the temporal to the eternal, while Martin Heidegger locates it in our way of living with death. Political theorist Hannah Arendt draws attention to the democratic public sphere, where citizens exchange views about the significance of their words and deeds. Existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus explore how individual integrity is achieved by facing up to a universe devoid of objective purpose. Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrates the experience of wholeness that nature provides to those who free themselves from the restrictions of society, Friedrich Nietzsche recommends approaching life as a work of art, and Susan Wolf identifies activities in which subjective passion meets objective value. We’ll explore these ideas and more. The course won’t provide any easy answers to the question of the meaning of life, but it will provide an opportunity to improve your ability to ask and answer it for yourself.
FREDERICK M. DOLAN
Professor of Rhetoric, Emeritus, UC Berkeley
Frederick M. Dolan’s interests include political and moral philosophy, theories of interpretation, and aesthetics and the philosophy of art. He received a PhD from Princeton. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Nietzsche, R.J. Hollingdale (trans.), Beyond Good and Evil (ISBN 978-0140449235)
(Required) Nietzsche, Kevin Hill (trans.), The Joyous Science (ISBN 978-0141195391)
(Required) Soren Kierkegaard, Alastair Hannay (Trans), Fear and Trembling (ISBN 978-0140444490)
(Required) Nietzsche, Kevin Hill (trans.), The Joyous Science (ISBN 978-0141195391)
(Required) Soren Kierkegaard, Alastair Hannay (Trans), Fear and Trembling (ISBN 978-0140444490)