🧐 Meaning-ism: Nihilism, Existentialism, and Absurdism
How do we shape our actions to be meaningful- not just today, but in two years or five decades? As the world changes around us, what happens to our sense of meaning?
This 6-week reading- and journaling-based class will examine works by great modern philosophers representing different approaches to finding meaning or adjusting to its loss. Each week we'll read a 10-20 page excerpt from an iconic text, do a brief journaling exercise to reflect on the reading, and discuss together. Expect to spend 1-2 hours outside of class preparing each week. Join the #cc-meaningism Slack channel and let's get going!
This class is meant to be integrative and personal: We will explore how the reading compares with our own experiences of searching for meaning. The goal is to use these texts to reflect on the existential crises we've faced in the past, and build tools to prepare for future challenges with the hope of creating a durably meaningful life.
Tentative reading list: Selections will be provided via PDF to participants. This reading list will evolve based on the class's feedback!
For weeks 3-6, we plan on splitting into two groups who each cover separate works with related themes
Feb 20, Week 1: Introductions and background
Feb 27, Week 2: Self-directed research on personally impactful texts
Mar 5: No class due to travel!
Mar 12, Week 3: Theology and freedom: Soren Kierkegaard v Bhagavad Gita
Mar 19, Week 4: Prophets in the wilderness: Friedrich Nietzsche v. Kalil Gibran
Mar 26, Week 5: Modern existentialism: Jean-Paul Sartre v. Simone de Beauvoir
April 29, Week 6: Meaning in the face of loss: Albert Camus v. Victor Frankl
At the end of the Week 6 session we'll close out with a viewing of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I love as an absurdist piece!
Find us in the Solarpunk Cafe: We’ll be at the green couch right in the first room of The Commons
Context: I grapple with existential crises every 3-5 years, when my sense of meaning collapses and I battle with nihilism and the depression it can bring. For me, finding better tools for this -whether from these authors, the classmates, or something else- is a deeply personal quest and motivates this class.
Disclaimer: I recognize that the reading list is composed of cis-hetero European caucasian men, and that Sartre's personal conduct is reprehensible. Because access to academic philosophy positions has been gated, a course which focuses on historically significant Western texts will draw from a homogeneous pool of authors. I am open to using group time to discuss how this limited approach to knowledge production constrains the potential solutions to questions of meaning, and recognize that important perspectives are structurally excluded.