Course Description

01 (J. Piven) Phenomenology is the study of conscious experience, intention, and meaning. It’s the study of the way we experience things, the way we make sense of them, the way we perceive, comprehend, imagine, feel, respond, and desire. Phenomenology studies structures of conscious and lived experience, how we interpret those experiences, the hermeneutic elucidation of how we endow experience and perception with meaning. Existentialism is concerned with the human condition, the purpose of life, authenticity in one’s purpose and being, the attempt to find meaning amidst the absurdity and finitude of existence. Philosophers have asked how life can be meaningful in the face of death, and whether life matters. This course presumes a basic knowledge of phenomenology and existentialism, and explores innovations in the phenomenology of evil, religion and racism, along with existential dread as it pervades belief, identity, politics, and pathology.