UC San Diego's Department of Philosophy is offering a new online summer course open to students from all UC campuses. The course entitled "Topics in Continental Philosophy: Jewish Existentialism" (PHIL 183) will be offered during UCSD's Summer Session 1 (approximately equivalent with UCSB's Summer Session A), from June 30th to August 2, 2025. Classes are 11 AM to 1:50 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students interested in the class can enroll via this link: https://summersession.ucsd.edu/enroll/application.html#visiting-uc-students.
Below is a desription of the course offered by the instructor, Noam Tiran:
Jewish thinkers have played a significant role in the development of European and American intellectual history. In this course, we will engage in a philosophical analysis of the writings of several Jewish authors, aiming to understand key themes in their thought and how these ideas can offer insight into our own 21st-century condition.
We will explore questions such as: “what attitudes should we hold towards our fellow beings?” “what is the divine, and what should our relationship with it be?” “how can we cope with grief, despair, and tragedy?” and “how can we find joy in our imperfect existence?”. Among the works we will (tentatively) cover are the Kabbalah-inspired writings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the poetic essays of Martin Buber, the humanistic treatises of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (who was deemed a “truly great prophet” by Martin Luther King, Jr.), and the rich thought of the feminist luminary Judith Plaskow.
While you should definitely take the course if you’re interested in Jewish Studies, it is not intended only for Jewish Studies or Philosophy students. It should interest anyone who cares about issues regarding ethnicity, religion, god, love, and the meaning of life.