COL 233

[WesMaps 98/99 Home Page] [Course Search] [Course Search by CID]

COL 233

The Good COL 233 FA

Section	Class Size	*Available	Times	POI	Prereq
1	25	0	Times: .T.T... 10:00AM-11:20AM;	No	No

*The number of spaces listed as available is based on class seats open for the Blue Add 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 Tue Aug 10 05:00:30 EDT 1999 )

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: 2, So: 3, Fr: 4; Major Preference Given

Last Updated on MAR-22-1999

Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.