This course is cross-listed with PHIL*6140

This class will be a study of two great works of 20th Century European Philosophy: Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness (1943) and Jacques Derrida’s Memoirs of the Blind (1990).  Each of these works is a study of the nature of our experience and of the specific ways in which our experience is meaningful.  Both works reveal that careful reflection on the nature of meaning calls for a significant re-evaluation of the ways we typically understand ourselves and our world.  With Sartre, we will focus on such themes as the body, language, and other people.  With Derrida, we will especially focus on the nature of expression—writing, drawing, and so on.  Our study will take us through some of the richest and most exciting dimensions of human life.

The course will be delivered through recorded lectures (asynchronous) supplemented by discussions (synchronous).

Course Outline [1]