Existentialism, Nihilism, and Religion

Catalog description

This course engages the relationship between nihilism, which claims that there are no secure foundations that provide life with meaning and purpose, and existentialism, a philosophy that prioritizes the freedom and responsibility of the individual subject against essential truths that precede existence and human striving. We will interrogate what it means to live in the afterlife of what Nietzsche calls the 'death of God' and question whether this spells the end of religion, spirituality, and the need for practices of the sacred. We also interrogate how race and gender pertain to questions about existence, being, nothingness, etc.