Philosophy

This course concentrates primarily on the philosophical and religious works of post-World War II women in the area of Continental philosophy. The philosophical texts of Simone de Beauvoir, Hanna Arendt, Simone Weil and Edith Stein will be explored to illustrate how the brutality, turbulence and genocide marking the Second World War led them to speak about violence and evil through their respective existential, political, and religious philosophies. Some of the themes that will be discussed are the objectification of “the Other” within the philosophical and literary works of Simone de Beauvoir; Nazism and the responding political philosophy of Hanna Arendt; and the possibility of a religious life in the midst of strife and war in the work of Simone Weil and Edith Stein.