PHIL5549 · Philosophy
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
This course offers a critical introduction to phenomenology, one of the most important movements of twentieth-century European philosophy, including its French existentialist development, and its critics. The major themes and movements in phenomenology and existentialism will be studied through several key thinkers: Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Edith Stein, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Levinas. Themes that will be critically considered include: intentionality, phenomenological description, perception and embodiment, moods and emotions, self-consciousness, the nature of the self, sociality and the surrounding lifeworld. The course will have both a historical and a critical orientation with an emphasis on reading selected primary-source texts in English translation.
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
4.7 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.8 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
4.7 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
4.7 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~5.5
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect the evaluations connected to this course.
Across time
Available section-level results across semesters.
Spring 2025
1 sectionSpring 2023
1 sectionSpring 2022
1 section