ATS3877 - Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir - 2018

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Arts

Organisational Unit

Philosophy

Chief examiner(s)

Mr Amir Ahmadi

Coordinator(s)

Mr Amir Ahmadi

Not offered in 2018

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of second-year Arts units. As this is a third-year level unit, it is highly recommended that students only take this unit after they have completed two second-year level units in Philosophy.

Synopsis

The unit looks at the development of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir's existentialism from Being and Nothingness and She Came to Stay, to The Second Sex and Critique of Dialectical Reason. Students will be introduced to the origins of Sartre and de Beauvoir's thinking in Husserl and Heidegger's phenomenology, the influence of Hegel on their thought and the concept of human freedom that they developed on this basis. Students will also be introduced to their later, more politically engaged philosophy, its relationship to Marxism, and its influence on late twentieth century notions of liberation. www.arts.monash.edu.au/phil/undergraduate/

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

  1. understand and explain the major ideas of the French existentialist tradition;
  2. appreciate the distinct contribution of Sartre and de Beauvoir to the role of literary expression in philosophical thinking;
  3. demonstrate the capacity to analyse and discuss ideas from the important texts of French existentialism;
  4. be aware of some of the important intellectual precursors of existentialism in German philosophy;
  5. show the ability to interpret and evaluate important concepts, arguments and texts, as well as to put forward ideas and arguments of their own in a clear and cogent way.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 50% + Exam: 50%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

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