Course topics to be investigated are both the historical and the uniquely contemporary significance of the tensions characterizing human existence in the twentieth and twenty-first century: the individuality of experience/the universality of reason; the objectivity of “truth”/the subjectivity of “meaning"; the limitations of human finitude/the desire for transcendence; freedom and personal fulfillment/responsibility and interpersonal relationship; the individual/society; and the individual/God.  Existentialism will be examined from the perspectives of literature and art, religion, philosophy, and psychology.  Students will endeavor to develop a philosophical understanding of the human person that gives equal importance to the reality of the tensions described and to their urgency for society today.  (If you have taken Existentialism, do not register for this course.)