Topics in Continental Philosophy

This seminar provides an examination of central philosophical texts and arguments covering a specific topic (changing each year) in continental philosophy. Students will gain insight into the wider context of the texts studied and deeper understanding of the arguments for and against the positions taken. They will also develop their own interpretation and assessment of the texts examined.

Topic for 2026-2027

In contemporary philosophy, few ideas are as fundamental, and as unsettling, as that of finitude. To be human is not simply to exist, but to exist within limits: limits of time, knowledge, embodiment, and ultimately, mortality. Yet rather than viewing these limits as merely restrictive, many Continental philosophers have argued that finitude is precisely what makes meaning, truth, and existence possible. This course explores how philosophers from the late 19th and 20th centuries have engaged with finitude -- not as a deficiency to overcome, but as a condition to be thought. From Heidegger’s analysis of being-towards-death to Derrida’s reflections on mourning and survival, we will examine how finitude structures subjectivity, ethics, politics, and community. In doing so, we will ask: does finitude confine us -- or does it open the very space in which meaning, responsibility, and existence unfold?


This course is for RMA students in the Graduate School of Humanities and students in History and Philosophy of Science. Students of other MA-programmes (such as Applied Ethics), please contact the Course Coordinator.