Course Existential orientation and meaning in life

Description:

Life is the main thing, and meaning is the main thing in life. This can be illustrated with the help of the following parable: A barefoot man finds a single gold coin and converts it into two silver coins. With one coin, he buys a plate of rice. With the second, he buys a flower. To the question “Why,” he replies: “The rice is to live. The flower is to have something to live for.” To survive, for the sake of existence, a plate of rice is needed. For a sense of life, for meaning in life – a flower is necessary. Thanks to meaning, we differentiate between what’s important and what’s less significant, and we adjust our choices accordingly.

Personal experiences of meaning in life are varied and diverse, depending on our individual ways of orienting ourselves in the world. Therefore, in this course, we will investigate the link between existential orientation and meaning in life.

Can we expect a common or shared orientation towards existential meaning in life? Søren Kierkegaard identified three overlapping realms or dimensions of life that could be seen as worldview archetypes: the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious. These three dimensions of existence are intricately connected to our experiences of different modalities of meaning in life.

The course readings combine Kierkegaard’s philosophical and theological search for meaning in different realms of life with Martin Buber’s Chassidic stories about the love of God and one’s fellow human beings, and the psychological pursuit for meaning despite massive trauma, in particular the approach developed by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl in his “logotherapy.”

In his keynote lecture, Dr. René Rosfort (Søren Kierkegaard Research Center, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) will focus on “Kierkegaard’s Existential Approach: The Single Individual Between Faith and Reason.” In her keynote lecture, Dr. Tami Yaguri (Ono Academic College, Israel) will present the “Art of Meaning,” her own method of identifiying and formulating meaning in a dialogical exchange, which she also employs in training art therapists and psychotherapists. In addition, Dr. Yaguri will conduct a workshop on personal meaning in life with the course participants. Course convenor Dr. Claudia Welz (Aarhus University) will lecture about “Existential Orientation in Life Crises: Arts-Based Research and Spiritual Counselling – Listening-Forth the Courage to Face Life.”

We invite PhD papers from different disciplines. If you want to present your work, please upload the title and abstract (around 250 words) of your proposed paper by March 20, 2024.

Papers should be uploaded to 

https://events.au.dk/uploadofabstractforexistentialorientationandmeaninginlife

Aims:

This course aims to provide

1. a critical discussion of theories and practices of pursuing meaning in different aspects of life’s way
2. an interdisciplinary and interreligious approach to finding personal meaning in life
3. an introduction into the philosophy of orientation with a view to orientation in life crises.

Literature:

The course materials will be forwarded via email.

Program
Course day 1 (May 15): Philosophical and religious approaches to
meaning and existential orientation
9:00-9:15 Welcome and introduction by course convenor Claudia Welz
9:15-10:00 Reading session 1: Kierkegaard on finding meaning in life
10:00-10:15 Coffee break
10:15-10:45 PhD paper 1: Brent Lyons (University of Oxford): “Kierkegaardian Anxiety and Meaning”
10:45-11:15 PhD paper 2: Ville Hämäläinen (Tampere University): “Inclosing Reserve as an Existence-Difficulty: Existential and Narrative
Accounts of Inwardness”
11:15-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:15 Reading session 2: Philosophy of orientation and Chassidic wisdom à la Buber
12:15-13:00 Lunch break
13:00-13:15 Introduction to keynote lecture 1, which is part of the hybrid lecture
series “Kierkegaard’s Methodology in the Context of the History of
Philosophy” (Research Unit for Kierkegaard Studies, Aarhus U.)
13:15-14:00 Dr. René Rosfort (Søren Kierkegaard Research Center, University of
Copenhagen): “Kierkegaard’s Existential Approach: The Single
Individual Between Faith and Reason”
14:00-14:30 Discussion
14:30-15:00 Coffee break
15:00-15:30 PhD paper 3: Cassandra Swick (University of Oxford): “Existential
Orientation and Mood: An Exploration of Kierkegaardian
Earnestness and Bipolar Disorder”
15:30-16:00 PhD paper 4: Jordan Spencer Jacobs (Universidad Complutense de
Madrid): “Between Kierkegaard and the Kotzker: An Exploration in the
Footsteps of Abraham Joshua Heschel”

Course day 2 (May 16): Psychological and therapeutic approaches to
meaning and existential orientation
9:00-9:45 Reading session 3: Frankl’s logotherapy, meaning, and the absurd
9:45-10:00 Coffee break
10:00-10:45 Keynote lecture 2: Dr. Tami Yaguri (Ono Academic College):“Towards the Art of Meaning”
10:45-11:15 Discussion
11:15-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:00 Introduction to a future workshop with Dr. Tami Yaguri on personal meaning in life
12:00-13:00 Lunch break
13:00-13:30 PhD paper 5: Lone Vesterdal (University of Southern Denmark): “Imagination and Transformation”
13:30-14:00 PhD paper 6: Cecilia Pihl Jespersen (Aarhus University): “Meaning and Sense-Making in Illness Understanding – ‘I'm still so confused
because it just doesn't have any meaning’”
14:00-14:30 Coffee break
14:30-15:00 PhD paper 7: Lasse Borg Kjerkegaard (Aarhus University): “On the
Edge of Meaning: Towards an Account of Anomalous Experiences
of Meaningfulness in Schizophrenia”
15:00-15:30 PhD paper 8: Sebastian Bloch (University of Southern Denmark):
“Measuring Meaning in Life in Denmark: Translation and Validation
of the Danish Meaning and Purpose Scales”
15:30-16:00 Wrapping up & course evaluation

ECTS credits:

1,5 ECTS for preparation and participation without paper

2,5 ECTS for attending the course and presenting a paper

Lecturers:

Course responsible: Claudia Welz

Invited speakers: René Rosfort and Tami Yaguri

Venue:

Campus Aarhus, Studenterhuset, Meeting Room M2, Frederik Nielsens Vej 2-4, 8000 Aarhus C.

Course dates:

• 15 May 2024 09:00 - 16:00
• 16 May 2024 09:00 - 16:00