Philosophy

This course introduces students to the philosophy of one of the foremost thinkers of the 20th Century, Martin Heidegger. Through an investigation into the seminal themes of his text, Being and Time, we will look at Heidegger’s descriptions of ourselves as “Dasein,” (Being There”) in terms of his analyses of “possibility,” “facticity,” “authenticity,” “dread,”, “fallenness,” and “Being-Toward-Death.” Lectures will initially concentrate on three introductory concerns: 1) the early influences upon Heidegger’s thinking (Nietzsche, Kierkegaard); 2) Husserl’s method of pure phenomenology; and 3) how 1 and 2 provide the foundations for what would emerge as “existential philosophy” after WW II. Open to 2nd year students and above