Introductory description

This module introduces students to existentialism, a major current in twentieth century philosophy that originates in the work of Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism had an enormous impact that extended beyond academic philosophy to art, politics, and wider culture. By grounding the major questions of philosophy in the texture of everyday human experience, it confronts us with a stunning question: what does it mean to live an authentic life? The module begins with a study of Sartre's existential phenomenology and then considers responses to Sartre's work by existentialists including Frantz Fanon and Simone de Beauvoir. A range of Sartre's original ideas will be covered, including consciousness, bad faith, freedom, knowledge of other minds, love, sexuality, and the nature of value. The main text is Sartre's central philosophical work, Being and Nothingness, supplemented by the work of other existentialists including Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks and Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The module will focus on a set of issues central to Sartrean existentialism, using Sartre's work Being and Nothingness as the main textual basis. It will also explore responses to Sartrean existentialism, using texts from other philosophers such as Fanon and Beauvoir. Topics normally include:

Sartre's notion of prereflective self-consciousness
Radical freedom, reasons, and value
The idea of bad faith
Conscious emotions
Experiencing others as subjects
Sartre's ethics
Fanon and the colonised other
Beauvoir's ethics of ambiguity

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• understand Sartre's existential phenomenology
• identify the important claims within readings, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses
• critically reflect on the texture and structure of their lived experience using Sartre's existential phenomenology
• examine different views of Sartre's argument, and offer relevant support for and critical responses to those views

Indicative reading list

Beauvoir, Simone de (1948) The Ethics of Ambiguity (Secaucus: Citadel Press).
Beauvoir, Simone de (2011) The Second Sex (New York: Vintage).
Fanon, Frantz (2008) Black Skin, White Masks (New York: Grove Press).
Eshleman, Matthew and Lui, Constance (eds.) (2020) The Sartrean Mind (London: Routledge).
Gardner, Sebastian (2009) Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness' (London: Continuum).
McCulloch, Gregory (1994) Using Sartre (London: Routledge).
Moran, Richard (2001) Authority and Estrangement (Princeton: Princeton UP).
Korsgaard, Christine (2009) Self-Constitution (Oxford: OUP).
Poellner, Peter (2012) 'Early Sartre on Freedom and Ethics', European Journal of Philosophy.
Sarte, Jean-Paul (1980) Existentialism and Humanism (London: Methuen).
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1992) Notebooks for an Ethics (Chicago: Chicago UP).
Sartre, Jean-Paul (2002) Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions (London: Routledge).
Sartre, Jean-Paul (2003) Being and Nothingness (London: Routledge).
Sartre, Jean-Paul (2020). Being and Nothingness (London: Routledge).
Webber, Jonathan (2009) The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre (London: Routledge).
Webber, Jonathan ed. (2011) Reading Sartre (London: Routledge).
Webber, Jonathan (2018) Rethinking Existentialism (Oxford: OUP).
Zahavi, Dan (1999) Self-Awareness and Alterity (Evanston: Northwestern UP).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

Pursue and organize philosophical research using a range of sources (print and electronic media), documenting research carefully, and showing the ability to engage independently in philosophical debate.

Transferable skills

Students should be able to communicate clearly and substantively in speech and in writing on the questions addressed in the module.