Universität Wien
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180132 LPS Meaning/less (2022S)

Readings on the Meaning of Life

5.00 ECTS (3.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 45 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 08.03. 13:15 - 15:30 Digital
  • Tuesday 15.03. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 22.03. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 29.03. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 05.04. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 26.04. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 03.05. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 10.05. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 17.05. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 24.05. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 31.05. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 14.06. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 21.06. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 28.06. 13:15 - 15:30 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Imagine you’re a supercomputer, your name is DEEP THOUGHT and you’ve spent the last 7.5 million years determining what the meaning of life is … Well, in that case you’ve probably come up with a viable answer: 42. – Now stop imagining. You’re actually human. Your average life span lies at around 80 years. You’ve already used up a quarter of that with no clue what life is about. Will you find out in the remaining three quarters? Who knows? Maybe philosophy can help you. There’ve been others before you … Schopenhauer, Sartre, Nagel, Nozick, Williams, … we’ll be reading their texts this term to make up our mind whether life has meaning or is meaningless after all.
Didactic goal of this course: This is an introductory reading seminar. Its purpose is to develop the students’ skills in philosophical interpretation and and their communication of ideas. A critical stance to one’s own opinions may be considered a further goal.

Method: Regular attendance in class sessions where we will work in groups, regular timely upload of your assignments (two days prior to class), a short presentation (alternatively in the form of a short podcast) and active participation in discussions.

Assessment and permitted materials

Each assignment will be graded by a point-system (5 out of 5 possible points amounts to „excellent“). Students can view their individual points in Moodle. – The complete set of corrected papers handed in each week will be visible in Moodle, however, these papers will have been anonymized. This way students can learn from reading their peers’ work.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

In order to get a positive grade you have to hand in ten short assignments as will be explained in the first unit. Attendance in our class sessions is mandatory, however, you may miss two course units. You will be graded on each part of your contributions to class, your weekly submissions amount to 70 per cent of your final grade, 30 per cent are based on your active participation in in-class discussions.

By registering for this course, you tacitly agree to having all your electronic submissions checked by Turnitin.

The points system explained above results in the following grades based on your ten required assignments:
46-50 points: excellent (1)
36-44 points: good (2)
26-35 points: fair (3)
If you achieved less than 26 points on these assignments, you will receive a poor grade (4). If you have not submitted all partial assignments, you will fail the reading seminar.

Examination topics

This is an introductory seminar for students who want to learn how to read and write philosophical texts. No final exam. Excerpts from the reading list (below) will be the basis for our discussions and the written homework.

Reading list

A good introduction to our reading seminar is:
Metz, Thaddeus (2013): “The Meaning of Life”, in: Edward N. Zalta (ed.): The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2013 Edition), Online unter URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2013/entries/life-meaning/
We will be reading – amongst others – excepts and essays taken from these volumes (all texts will be provided as PDFs in moodle):
Camus, Albert (1970): Lyrical and Critical Essays. Ed. by Philip Thody. New York: Random House.
Nagel, Thomas (1979): Mortal Questions. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Nagel, Thomas (1986): The View from Nowhere. New York & Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Nozick, Robert (1989): The Examined Life. Philosophical Meditations. New York et al.: Simon & Schuster.
James, William (1992): „Is Life Worth Living?“ [1896], in: Writings 1878–1899. New York: Library of America. pp. 480–503.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1993): Der Ekel [La Nausée]. Reinbeck near Hamburg: Rowohlt.
Schlick, Mortiz (2008): „Vom Sinn des Lebens“ [1927], in: Die Wiener Zeit. Aufsätze, Beiträge, Rezensionen 1926–1936 (= Gesamtausgabe, Bd. 6), ed. and intro. by Johannes Friedl and Heiner Rutte. Vienna & New York: Springer, 99–125.
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1994): „Nachträge zur Lehre von der Nichtigkeit des Daseyns“ [1851], in: Parerga und Paralipomena, Vol. 2. Zurich: Haffmanns.
Williams, Bernard (2008): Problems of the Self. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 11.05.2023 11:27