From Mysticism to Atheism

Catalog description

In this course, we shall begin by reading Schelling’s Bruno, which seeks redemption through a mystical “pantheism”—the teaching that the world is one with God. We shall then go on to read various texts from Nietzsche. Nietzsche rejects the mysticism of Schelling but still wants to save the world and seeks to do so through what one could call an atheist pantheism, which redirects the passion for transcendence to an embrace of life on Earth. Students will be expected to bring a written question on the reading to each class, to present short sections of the reading, and to write a paper analyzing a topic or section of the class reading. The First Philosophers