This semester we will concentrate on two important figures in the
existential tradition: Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre.  Main
themes will include: human freedom and "criterionless choice," the
existence or non-existene of God, the nature of belief, the structure
of human consciousness, the notion of an "unconscious" mind, human
emotions, self-deception, morality, and (the big question) "what does
it all mean anyway?"  There will be two lectures and one disscussion
section per week.

Readings will be from: Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevski to
Sartre (a collection of passages from Kierkegaard and Sartre, among
others), Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, and Sartre's weird novel
Nausea.  There will be short weekly quizzes over matters of
terminology and other purely "factual" things, plus a series of four
progressively more ambitious papers.  (There will be opportunities to
rewrite some of these papers in response to comments and criticisms.)