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COL 233
The Good
COL 233 FA
| Section | Class Size | *Available | Times |
|---|
| 1 | 35 | 0 | Times: .T.T... 10:00AM-11:20AM; |
*The number of spaces listed as available is based on class seats open for
the current phase of registration. Some seats may be taken in previous
phases while others may be held out for subsequent phases of registration.
(Last Updated on Wed Mar 4 05:01:03 EST 1998
)
How should I live? What values are worthy of my approbation,
commitment, belief? What, in effect, is the life worth
living? These are often referred to as the "big questions."
In a sense they are perennial and no doubt implicitly, if
not explicitly, cross-cultural as well. In this course,
however, the focus of the inquiry will be historical as well
as philosophical, with its chronological "take-off" firmly
located in classical antiquity and proceeding to the 20th
century. While the reading will include selections from the
Western philosophical canon, it will also feature
imaginative literature as well. Among the questions to be
considered will be the relationship between fact and value,
the virtues and their mooring in community and practices,
contemplation and action, the cultural and linguistic
contexts of valuation, the claims of essentialism, the
Absolute, and the specters of nihilism, relativism, and
emotivism in recent ethical philosophy.
MAJOR READINGS
Plato, APOLOGY
Aristotle, ETHICS
Augustine, CONFESSIONS, THE LITTLE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS
Pascal, PENSEES
Diderot, RAMEAU'S NEPHEW
Kant, METAPHYSICS OF MORALS
Mill, UTILITARIANISM
Nietzsche, BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
Camus, THE PLAGUE
Alasdair MacIntyre, AFTER VIRTUE
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Students will keep a weekly
journal and there will be a mid-term and final essay
required. Class discussion, some informal lecturing.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Unless
preregistered students attend the first class meeting or
communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first
class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE:
Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the
Registrar's office.
COURSE FORMAT: Discussion
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UG Credit: 1.00
Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA COL
Prerequisites:
None
- Section 01
- Bernstein, H
- Times: .T.T... 10:00AM-11:20AM;
- Grading Mode: Mixed
- Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 1, Jr: 1, So: 1, Fr: 0
- Major Preference Given
Last Updated on MAR-03-1998
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459