PHIL 450K Special Topics: Existentialism

This course is an introduction to existentialism, one of the most influential intellectual currents of the 20th century. The existentialists' characteristic preoccupations arise from what they see as threats to human freedom arising from such diverse forces as religious conformity, cultural homogenization, unfeeling rationality and mass society. In this course, we will explore the existentialists' philosophical responses to these threats, beginning with the roots of the movement in the 19th century.