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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.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL Grading Mode: Student Option
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459