What does it mean to feel alone? Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
In this course, we’ll explore Sartre’s descriptions of the philosophical and psychological challenge of grappling with aloneness as a central feature of the human experience.
We’ll read and discuss Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogs his every feeling and sensation about the world and people around him.
His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which "spread at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time, the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain."
Roquentin's efforts to try and come to terms with his life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Sartre the opportunity to dramatize the tenets of his Existentialist creed.
Loneliness can be a painful thing. But Antoine also knows that isolation is often a necessary ingredient of deep philosophical thought. If you're constantly hanging out with people and joking around, you keep yourself distracted from the truth, which according to Antoine is that life is meaningless and the people are 100% responsible for justifying everything they do.
”I live alone, entirely alone. I never speak to anyone, never; I receive nothing, I give nothing.“
“I have never resisted these harmless emotions; far from it. You must be just a little bit lonely in order to feel them.” - Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
About this six-session class series
This course is part of a six-session class series. Participants are welcome to enroll in the full class series or session-by-session. All Premise courses are conversation-style and facilitated.
The ideal: Participate in the full class series.
Students are invited to participate in each session in the class series. The enduring questions of the class will become deeper and more complex by participating in each session. Students come to know one another and connect more deeply through participation in the full series.
The cost of the full six-session series is $125 and includes the bonus session. Register here for the series.
Can’t make the full series? Participate as you are able.
If you can’t participate in all sessions, we encourage you to attend any session they are able. We believe in low-barrier, flexible, and adaptive learning and community-making. Therefore, you are welcome whenever you can make it at Premise!
The pay-as-you-go session cost is $35/per session.
Class date and time
Sunday, September 18, 2022, 4:00-5:30PM PST
All Premise courses take place on Zoom.
Why take this course?
Loneliness is central to the human experience. Yet, it can be hard to talk about loneliness and isolation because of social stigma. We may feel that loneliness is a personal failure. In her poem The Loneliness One dare not sound, Emily Dickinson writes loneliness is the “Horror not to be surveyed.”
Loneliness is baked into what it means to be human, and most of us will experience periods of loneliness in our lives. But, what does it mean to be lonely?
Even before the forced isolation of Covid-19, rates of loneliness were skyrocketing in the U.S. and around the world. More than 20%, in fact, of the adult population in America admits to struggling with loneliness regularly. That's more people than have diabetes in our country and more adults than smoke in the United States. Public health officials medicalize loneliness and refer to it as an epidemic.
Yet, philosophers and psychologists have long argued that loneliness is an essential part of the human condition.
Philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote, “Solitude is the human condition in which I keep myself company. Loneliness comes about when I am alone without being able to split up into the two-in-one, without being able to keep myself company.”
The existentialist feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir embraced loneliness and thought of it as her creative force.
Each course in this series will examine what it means when we feel alone and how to make sense of the human experience of loneliness.
Together, we’ll explore the questions:
What does it mean to feel alone?
Are being alone and being lonely the same?
Can we be coupled, have a family or a strong community of friends, and still be lonely?
Is there a purpose for loneliness?
Can we live with the pain of loneliness without succumbing to it?