PHI 91 — The Meaning of Life: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and More
Quarter: Summer
Day(s): Wednesdays
Course Format: Live Online (About Formats)
Duration: 10 weeks
Date(s): Jun 28—Aug 30
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Refund Deadline: Jun 30
Units: 2
Tuition: $520
Instructor(s): Frederick M. Dolan
Class Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
Summer
Date(s)
Jun 28—Aug 30
10 weeks
Refund Date
Jun 30
2 Units
Fees
$520
Instructor(s):
Frederick M. Dolan
Recording
Yes
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) E.D. Klemke and Steven Cahn, The Meaning of Life, 4th Edition (ISBN 978-0190674199)
(Required) Soren Kierkegaard and Alastiar Hannay(Translator), Fear and Trembling (ISBN 978-0140444490)
(Required) Friedrich Nietzsche and R.J. Hollingdale(Translator), Beyond Good and Evil (ISBN 978-0140449235)
(Required) Friedrich Nietzsche and R. Kevin Hill(Ed., Trans.), The Joyous Science (ISBN 978-0141195391 )
(Required) Soren Kierkegaard and Alastiar Hannay(Translator), Fear and Trembling (ISBN 978-0140444490)
(Required) Friedrich Nietzsche and R.J. Hollingdale(Translator), Beyond Good and Evil (ISBN 978-0140449235)
(Required) Friedrich Nietzsche and R. Kevin Hill(Ed., Trans.), The Joyous Science (ISBN 978-0141195391 )