24
Lectures
30
minutes/lecture
1.
What Is Existentialism?
Existentialism is best thought of as a movement, a "sensibility" that can be traced throughout the history of Western philosophy. Its central themes are the significance of the individual, the importance of passion, the irrational aspects of life, and the importance of human freedom.
1.
What Is Existentialism?
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13.
Nietzsche—The Übermensch and the Will to Power
Though he appears in only one book, the Übermensch is Nietzsche's best-known invention and the alternative to the smug and hateful "last man." Ultimately, both the Übermensch and the spiritualized Will to Power that he embodies represent passion and the love of life.
13.
Nietzsche—The Übermensch and the Will to Power
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2.
Albert Camus—The Stranger, Part I
This novel is an excellent example of the new existentialist literature of the 1940s. Meursault, the title character, is critically devoid of basic human attributes. But then he kills a man, and we get to see him forced into philosophic reflection and humanity.
2.
Albert Camus—The Stranger, Part I
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14.
Three Grand Inquisitors—Dostoevsky, Kafka, Hesse
Three important figures surrounding Nietzsche are Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, and Hermann Hesse. Dostoevsky was a contemporary who also investigated the dark side of human reason. Kafka wrote fiction that powerfully explored the absurd. Hesse was an admirer of Nietzsche who also became heavily influenced by Buddhist thought.
14.
Three Grand Inquisitors—Dostoevsky, Kafka, Hesse
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3.
Camus—The Stranger, Part II
The Stranger captures the philosophical conflict between reason and experience. It raises the question of the meaning and worth of rationality and reflection. It also raises basic questions about self-consciousness, good and evil, innocence and guilt.
3.
Camus—The Stranger, Part II
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15.
Husserl, Heidegger, and Phenomenology
Edmund Husserl founded phenomenology, a philosophical method seeking certainty. His greatest student was Martin Heidegger, who took Husserl's method into the realm of existentialism with a remarkable account of human being as "being there."
15.
Husserl, Heidegger, and Phenomenology
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4.
Camus—The Myth of Sisyphus
Here is Camus's vision of "the absurd." The absurd is born, Camus says, out of our increasingly impersonal, abstract, scientific view of the world. Only truly personal experience, he insists, can be ultimately meaningful.
4.
Camus—The Myth of Sisyphus
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16.
Heidegger on the World and the Self
For Heidegger, Dasein approaches the world less as an object of knowledge than as a set of tasks. Why, then, does Heidegger also question technology, the task-doing science?
16.
Heidegger on the World and the Self
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5.
Camus—The Plague and The Fall
In this, the most "social" work by Camus, the plague is a metaphor for the absurd. The theme of the novel is impending but unpredictable death, both individual and collective. Camus represents himself (more or less) as Tarrou, who faces the plague with both determination and irony.
5.
Camus—The Plague and The Fall
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17.
Heidegger on “Authenticity”
What are the three "existential" features of Dasein? What are the essentials of authenticity, according to Heidegger? How does recognition of our own mortality prompt us to achieve them?
17.
Heidegger on “Authenticity”
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6.
Camus—The Fall, Part II
Here Camus displays reflection and guilt in extreme form. Clamence the attorney has become a "judge-penitent," and he confesses his supposedly hypocritical life to the reader. But is his intent expiation or seduction?
6.
Camus—The Fall, Part II
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18.
Jean-Paul Sartre at War
Jean-Paul Sartre named existentialism and popularized it. His philosophy can best be summed up by the phrase "No excuses!" Whatever the situation, he insists, we have choices. We are all responsible for what we do, what we are, and the way the world is.
18.
Jean-Paul Sartre at War
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7.
Søren Kierkegaard—“On Becoming a Christian”
This 19th-century Danish philosopher was, in many ways, the first existentialist. Why did he, a devout Christian, reject so much of what his contemporaries meant by "being a Christian"?
7.
Søren Kierkegaard—“On Becoming a Christian”
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19.
Sartre on Emotions and Responsibility
Sartre was an early foe of psychologists such as William James and Freud, whose theories he found deterministic. Sartre insisted that emotions are not mere "feelings," but freely chosen strategies for coping with a difficult world.
19.
Sartre on Emotions and Responsibility
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8.
Kierkegaard on Subjective Truth
Kierkegaard took subjective truth, embraced with inwardness and passion, to be the central element in a meaningful life. Are there, he asked, any but subjective answers to the question, "How should I live?"
8.
Kierkegaard on Subjective Truth
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20.
Sartres Phenomenology
Borrowing from Husserl, Sartre tells us that consciousness is freedom. It is also "nothingness": as intentional, it is always about something other than itself and outside the network of causal relations. How does such a phenomenology of human nature replace traditional philosophical arguments?
20.
Sartres Phenomenology
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9.
Kierkegaard's Existential Dialectic
Kierkegaard cannot be understood apart from his critique of Hegel. In the Dane's version of the dialectic, there is no predetermined direction, only subjective "modes of existence," but no purely rational ground for choosing one over another.
9.
Kierkegaard's Existential Dialectic
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21.
Sartre on “Bad Faith”
What does Sartre mean by the terms Being-for-Itself, Being-in-Itself, and Being-for-Others? What is the meaning of his distinction between facticity and transcendence? Finally, where and why does Sartre see "bad faith" coming into the picture?
21.
Sartre on “Bad Faith”
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10.
Friedrich Nietzsche on Nihilism and the Death of God
Friedrich Nietzsche blames Plato and the Judeo-Christian tradition for "nihilism," and praises the ancient Greeks of Homeric epic and Periclean Athens. Claiming that "God is dead," Nietzsche offers an alternative to Jesus in the form of the "this-worldly" Persian prophet Zarathustra.
10.
Friedrich Nietzsche on Nihilism and the Death of God
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22.
Sartre’s Being-for-Others and No Exit
Many philosophers have argued that we know the existence of others through an obvious kind of inference. Sartre, however, insists that our knowledge of them comes first from being looked at by them. Or as one of the characters in No Exit famously says, "L'enfer, ce sont les autres."
22.
Sartre’s Being-for-Others and No Exit
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11.
Nietzsche, the “Immoralist”
Nietzsche was neither immoral nor a foe of morality as such. But he did take aim at Judeo-Christian morality. By contrast, he praised an aristocratic and independent "master" morality.
11.
Nietzsche, the “Immoralist”
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23.
Sartre on Sex and Love
What consequences follow when Sartre's analysis of Being-for-Others is applied to love and other intimate human relationships? How does his view of love and friendship as struggles for self-definition and authenticity compare with traditional treatments of these phenomena in Western culture?
23.
Sartre on Sex and Love
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12.
Nietzsche on Freedom, Fate, and Responsibility
Nietzsche often praises fate and fatalism. But at the same time, he encourages existential self-realization. Struggling with Schopenhauer's pessimism, Nietzsche insists that we can and should "give style to our character" in order to "become who we are."
12.
Nietzsche on Freedom, Fate, and Responsibility
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24.
From Existentialism to Postmodernism
What is postmodernism? Has it really eclipsed Sartrean existentialism? Is there a postmodernist debt to Sartre? And more importantly, are there emphases and insights in Sartre that postmodernism loses sight of and could stand to learn from its predecessor?
24.
From Existentialism to Postmodernism
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36
Lectures
30
minutes/lecture
1.
The Meaning of the Meaning of Life
Establish the solid ground from which your journey will begin. You'll learn the meanings that the word "meaning," itself, may embody and preview the approaches you will take to the question that gives the course its name.
1.
The Meaning of the Meaning of Life
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19.
Santideva—Transforming the Mind
Enhance your grasp of Mahayana Buddhism and Santideva's description of the meaningful life, achieved only through the "six perfections"—the pursuit of generosity, propriety, patience, effort, meditation, and wisdom.
19.
Santideva—Transforming the Mind
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2.
The Bhagavad-Gita—Choice and Daily Life
One of the core texts of the Mahabharata—a major moral and religious text for most Hindus—introduces you to the critically important skill of truly reading a text, deeply and with comprehension. It also begins your consideration of the concept of human choice.
2.
The Bhagavad-Gita—Choice and Daily Life
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20.
Zen—The Moon in a Dewdrop and Impermanence
Expand your understanding of Buddhism with an introduction to Zen. This path to Buddhahood is aimed at direct transformation. Knowledge is handed directly from mind to mind, with great emphasis placed on a teacher-disciple lineage that each Zen master can trace directly to Zen's originating moment.
20.
Zen—The Moon in a Dewdrop and Impermanence
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3.
The Bhagavad-Gita—Discipline and Duty
Plunge more deeply into the Bhagavad-Gita's wisdom by grasping the three kinds of yogas, or disciplines, embedded in its metaphors. See why these disciplines of action, knowledge, and devotion are all required if life is to be coherent, integrated, and rational.
3.
The Bhagavad-Gita—Discipline and Duty
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21.
Zen—Being-Time and Primordial Awakening
This lecture takes you through Zen concepts like duality and non-duality, perception and conception, Dogen's presentation of time as the very nature of our world, and what is required to reawaken our primordial Buddha-nature.
21.
Zen—Being-Time and Primordial Awakening
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4.
The Bhagavad-Gita—Union and Purpose
Conclude your reading of the Bhagavad-Gita with an appreciation of the theophany—Krishna's revelation of the nature of divinity. True freedom, says the Gita's final message, comes from disinterested action, reflective knowledge, and a finding of value at the cosmic level of a universe divine in its own right.
4.
The Bhagavad-Gita—Union and Purpose
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22.
Taking Stock of the Classical World
A look back at the classical traditions studied thus far reveals that although there is no unanimity, there are common dimensions, as well as a consensus about the value of a virtuoso life attained through contemplation and practice.
22.
Taking Stock of the Classical World
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5.
Aristotle on Life—The Big Picture
Shift your perspective from India to the roots of Western thought about life's meaning by beginning your study of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. This introductory lecture sets out the framework of Aristotle's view, as set forth in the lecture notes kept by his son and pupil, Nichomacheus.
5.
Aristotle on Life—The Big Picture
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23.
Hume's Skepticism and the Place of God
European modernity brings the first challenges of science and reason to the primacy of theology. David Hume argues that, although theism may well be reasonable, it cannot be rational, establishing the foundation for separate public and private spheres.
23.
Hume's Skepticism and the Place of God
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6.
Aristotle—The Highest Good
Explore Aristotle's search for the "highest good." It is a search that takes you through his famous "function argument" and offers an explanation of the comprehensive state of being known as eudaimonea, the fully flourishing life that may well elude evaluation until long after death.
6.
Aristotle—The Highest Good
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24.
Hume's Careless and Compassionate Vision
You explore Hume's distinctions between Nature and Second Nature, the importance of our social lives to our cognitive lives, and the key roles our passions and imagination play in our beliefs and actions.
24.
Hume's Careless and Compassionate Vision
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7.
Aristotle—The Happy Life
Your examination of Aristotle's ethical teachings concludes with his explanation of virtue, its key dimensions, and its necessary coupling with action. Special attention is also paid to the importance of friendship.
7.
Aristotle—The Happy Life
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25.
Kant—Immaturity and the Challenge to Know
The work of Immanuel Kant is considered the demarcation line for modern academic philosophy. Here you take up Kant's view of the Enlightenment as a call for people to emerge from their self-imposed immaturity and realize their nature as fully formed human beings.
25.
Kant—Immaturity and the Challenge to Know
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8.
Job's Predicament—Life Is So Unfair
As you move to the Hebraic tradition, you grasp how the core question has shifted. Instead of seeking our answer in our relationship to the cosmos, as in the Indian tradition, or to society, as in that of the Greeks, the focus is now on our relationship to a personal God.
8.
Job's Predicament—Life Is So Unfair
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26.
Mill's Call to Individuality and to Liberty
Readings from John Stuart Mill's On Liberty reveal the first purely individualistic doctrine of the meaning of life encountered in the course. Mill presents the strongest possible defense of the connection between a meaningful life and a liberal social order.
26.
Mill's Call to Individuality and to Liberty
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9.
Job's Challenge—Who Are We?
The book of Job brings an encounter with a troubling conclusion. Although life may indeed have meaning, it is a meaning shrouded by a mysterious divine, and we may need to live in ignorance of what that meaning may be.
9.
Job's Challenge—Who Are We?
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27.
Tolstoy—Is Everyday Life the Real Thing?
A novella by Tolstoy presents a very different and critical view of modernity, suggesting that its values of secularization and mass society invariably lead us, in fact, to a life that is meaningless.
27.
Tolstoy—Is Everyday Life the Real Thing?
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10.
Stoicism—Rationality and Acceptance
Your focus moves to the beginnings of Stoic moral theory in the writings of Seneca and Epictetus. Their accounts of a good life describe one that is moderate, reasonable, and controlled, living in harmony with the universe and society, and accepting of the inevitability of death.
10.
Stoicism—Rationality and Acceptance
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28.
Nietzsche—Twilight of the Idols
Nietzsche initiates postmodernism in philosophy—its first sustained attack on modernity. Through readings from his Twilight of the Idols, you grasp Nietzsche's dismissal of modernity's core values, including philosophical progress, reason, systematicity, god, and transcendent value.
28.
Nietzsche—Twilight of the Idols
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11.
Human Finitude—The Epicurean Synthesis
A brief introduction to Lucretius, the foremost Epicurean philosopher, serves as a gateway to the thought of Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius's Meditations synthesizes Stoic ideas about rational order and the importance of emotional control with Epicurean ideas about finitude and impermanence.
11.
Human Finitude—The Epicurean Synthesis
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29.
Nietzsche—Achieving Authenticity
Nietzsche's repudiation of modernity's concept of a meaningful life does not mean he lacks his own. This lecture presents his vision of life as a successful creative act on a grand scale, with oneself as the hero of a great autobiography.
29.
Nietzsche—Achieving Authenticity
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12.
Confucius—Order in the Cosmos and in Life
Your focus shifts to China and the ideas attributed to the man known to the West as Confucius. Hear what his teachings have to say about concepts like warm-heartedness, propriety, virtue, filial piety, the nature of the universe, and the achievement of an effortless excellence of character.
12.
Confucius—Order in the Cosmos and in Life
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30.
Gandhi—Satyagraha and Holding Fast to Truth
Your introduction to the thought of Gandhi reveals him as even more radical than Nietzsche. Although a realization of Gandhi's views would admittedly sacrifice many of modernity's benefits, including much of technology, medicine, and law, it is a price he says we must be willing to pay.
30.
Gandhi—Satyagraha and Holding Fast to Truth
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13.
Daodejing—The Dao of Life and Spontaneity
An exploration of a very different Chinese approach to understanding than that set forth in Confucianism begins with a cautionary demonstration of the startling differences in interpretation that will always be present among various translations of a text.
13.
Daodejing—The Dao of Life and Spontaneity
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31.
Gandhi—The Call to a Supernormal Life
Gandhi's own life serves as an example of the supernormal life he advocates. See how his argument for what he believes to be the only meaningful life includes echoes from almost every text we've examined.
31.
Gandhi—The Call to a Supernormal Life
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14.
Daodejing—The Best Life Is a Simple Life
Some beautiful readings from the Daodejing bring out the profound differences in outlook that set it apart from Confucianism. Grasp how it turns away from social structures and the "cultivation" of individual excellence in favor of a simple, natural life.
14.
Daodejing—The Best Life Is a Simple Life
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32.
Lame Deer—Life Enfolded in Symbols
Readings from Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions offer a different vantage point for seeking meaning: a symbolic view of life. It is not that modernity lacks its own symbolism or is without meaning, says this Lakota Sioux holy man, but that it means the wrong things.
32.
Lame Deer—Life Enfolded in Symbols
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15.
Daodejing—Subtlety and Paradox
Conclude your immersion in the Daodejing with this examination of some of its most important aspects. Take in its perspectives on the nature of the universe, the subtlety and suppleness of virtue, the value of "negativity," and the delicacy of life.
15.
Daodejing—Subtlety and Paradox
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33.
Lame Deer—Our Place in a Symbolic World
Go deeper into Lame Deer's critique of modernity, examining his ideas about the impact of money and our fetishism about it, the alienation from nature it brings about, and modernity's simultaneous denial and spreading of death.
33.
Lame Deer—Our Place in a Symbolic World
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16.
Zhuangzi on Daoism—Impermanence and Harmony
Your exploration of Daoism ends with its longest classical text, the Zhuangzi. You find not only the themes of spontaneity and the suspicion of logic, but also ridicule of the Confucian emphasis on ritual, propriety, and rigid relationships.
16.
Zhuangzi on Daoism—Impermanence and Harmony
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34.
HH Dalai Lama XIV—A Modern Buddhist View
You are introduced to the Dalai Lama's Buddhist-inflected but very modern, secular vision about the universal human goal of happiness. You learn its components and the relationship between their pursuit and the interconnectedness of human life.
34.
HH Dalai Lama XIV—A Modern Buddhist View
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17.
The Teachings of the Buddha
This lecture begins with the search for enlightenment by a young Indian prince and concludes with an introduction to what he found—the so-called Four Noble Truths, including the eightfold path to sharing that enlightenment.
17.
The Teachings of the Buddha
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35.
HH Dalai Lama XIV—Discernment and Happiness
A vigorous discussion of how to achieve happiness reveals how the Dalai Lama's views of a meaningful life, modern as they are, also contain a deep traditionalist thread. We must still commit to the bodhisattva path, the altruistic aspiration to attain awakening for the benefit of all.
35.
HH Dalai Lama XIV—Discernment and Happiness
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18.
Santideva—Mahayana Buddhism
Here you begin your study of one of the major evolutions in Buddhist thought, the Mahayana, and one of its major texts—Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara—a "how-to" manual for leading an enlightened life.
18.
Santideva—Mahayana Buddhism
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36.
So, What Is the Meaning of Life?
Tempting as it may be to form a single answer agreed on by all, there is none to be found. What is clear is that there are recurrent themes, with the answer that works for you likely to be found among them.
36.
So, What Is the Meaning of Life?
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