2017-2018 Academic Catalog

Nov 28, 2024

2017-2018 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

PHIL 100 - The Good Life

Healthy human beings want to be happy. We want to live good lives. But what can a person do to live a good life? What makes one life good and another not so good? What makes one person happy and another not? Are there significant connections between health, well-being, social involvement, ethical endeavor, worldly achievement, felt satisfaction, and living a good life? In this seminar we will use philosophical, psychological, religious, and literary works to explore some of the ways that human beings organize their lives, set fundamental goals and standards, and try to assess these. Our seminar will examine a range of possible life aims including the search for pleasure, cultivating personal excellence, the pursuit of wealth and power, contributing to the public good, ecological attunement, spiritual fulfillment, and having no aim at all.

Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: VP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically