Existential Choices

Existential Choices

Dr. Tami Yaguri

What one chooses is always important, not because a specific choice will change the world, but because it may change her life and shape her existence. This view is expressed by the 19th century Danish philosopher, SØren Kierkegaard, and has been carried on by leading existential philosophers such as Nietzsche, Rosenzweig, Sartre, and Camus. In this branch of philosophy conscious decisions, choices, and actions contribute to the design of self-identity and world view. Hence, it is important to choose well and to make the right choice. How to choose is as important as what to choose.
We constantly choose. Yet, some choices seem more significant and meaningful than others, some seem important and others less so. How do we know which is which? How can we tell an existential choice from a mere choice? What is the right way to choose? What counts as the right choice? Answers to these questions and others will be presented and discussed in the course.
 

Class Requirements:
Full attendance and active participation in discussion.
Reading assigned materials for class.
Presentations in class – 10%
Final in-class exam – 90%
 

Bibliography (partial list)

• Camus Albert (1991) The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays. New York: Random House.
• Buber, Martin (2004) I and Thou. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
• Frankl, Viktor (2006). Man's Search for Meaning. MA: Beacon Press.
• Jung C.G. (1989) Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Edt. Aniela Jaffe, trans. Clara Winston. New York: Random House.
• Kierkegaaed S. (1980) The Concept of Anxiety. Edt. & Tras. Thomate. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
• Nietzsche, Friedrich (1968) The Will to Power: In Science, Nature, Society and Art. Edts. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Random House. 
• (2009) On the Future of our Educational Institutions. Translator: J. M. Kennedy. Edinburgh: Morrison & Gibb Limited.
• Rosenzweig, Franz (1999) Understanding the Sick and the Healthy: A View of World, Man, and God. Edited and translated by Nahum N. Glatzer. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Sartre, Jean-Paul (2007) Existentialism Is a Humanism (translated by Carol Macomber, introduction by Annie Cohen-Solal, notes and preface by Arlette Elkaïm-Sartre), New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Van Deurzen, Emmy (1997) Everyday Mysteries: Existential Dimensions of Psychotherapy. New York: Routledge.