Mar 28, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2015-2016 
    
Academic Catalog 2015-2016 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

LALW321 The Crisis of Modern Man 3cr


This course revolves around the great themes of Existentialism.  Throughout our readings and discussions, we come face to face with “Modern Man.” We encounter a world in which “God is dead” where human beings are suddenly and absolutely confronted with the responsibility of creating meaning for themselves in an absurd world, a world where people must define good and evil on their own terms with no recourse to a “morality” to guide them.  We look at the uniquely human problems of alienation and despair, freedom and responsibility, the striving for authenticity in an inauthentic world, the power wielded by the objectifying other, and the confrontation with a society which dehumanizes us and would imprison us within a world of limits, with death being the most terrible limit of all. Authors include Kierkegaard, Sartre, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and Camus, among others.

Prerequisites: LALW200

Undergraduate Elective
Spring