2019f-apphil1100a-03

AP/PHIL1100 3.0 A: The Meaning of Life

Offered by: PHIL


 Session

Fall 2019

 Term

F

Format

BLEN (Blended online and classroom)

Instructor

Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite

An exploration of a number of fundamental practical philosophical questions, including: What is the meaning of (my) life? What is happiness, and how can I achieve it? What is wisdom? What is death, and what does it mean to me?

Course Website

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    Getting Started with your Blended online and classroom Course

Students enrolled in this course are required to review the Next Steps website.

The Next Steps website explains how to start your fully online (ONLN) & blended (BLEN) course(s) with start up information including computing requirements, course website access instructions and links to course outlines & course websites. Students are also encouraged to review the Student Guide to eLearning at York University.

Moodle course website access starts within the first week of the term. For late enrollees it takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access the Moodle websites once the semester has started. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week of the semester. Get familiar with Moodle by reviewing the Moodle Student Resources Page.

For enrolment matters and academic related questions, please contact the affiliated LA&PS School/Department. For eLearning support please contact eLearning Services, LA&PS.

Moodle and computing support can be directed to ithelp@yorku.ca or visit the Student Computing website

    Additional Course Instructor/Contact Details

Henry Jackman

Office: 434 South Ross

Office hours: TBD

Office phone: 736 2100 x77595

E-mail: hjackman@yorku.ca

Web Page: www.jackman.org

    Expanded Course Description

This course is devoted to exploring a number of fundamental philosophical questions that make their way into everyday life: What is the meaning of (my) life? Is there any meaning in my life that will not be destroyed by my death? What is happiness, and how can I achieve it? What is it to be wise, and is wisdom a good thing to have? What is death, and what does it mean to me? Is the unexamined life really not worth living (as Socrates maintained)?

 

In exploring these questions, we will read selections from the works of classical philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the Epicureans, as well as a number of modern and contemporary philosophers such as Hume, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx, James and Sartre and Wolf.

    Required Course Text / Readings

All of the required texts are in the course kit available at the bookstore.

    Weighting of Course

Weekly online exercises:                      10%
500 word expository essay:                 15%
Tutorial participation:                           5%
1000 word critical essay:                      30%
Final Exam:                                             40%

    Organization of the Course

Philosophy 1100: Tentative schedule, Fall 2019

Week of Sept 4:   Introduction: Course Mechanics

Introduction: Course Themes

Introduction: Arguments

 

Week of Sept 9:                   Plato: Apology

Plato: Crito

Quizzes on Themes & Arguments and on Plato due (Friday Sept 13)

 

Week of Sept 16:                 Epictetus: The Handbook

Epicurus: “Letter to Menoeceus”, Principal Doctrines

Nozick: “The Experience Machine”

Quizzes on Epicurus & Epictetus due (Friday Sept 20)

 

 

Week Sept 23:                     Nagel: “Death”

Quizzes on Nagel due (Friday Sept 27)

First paper due (Sunday Sept 29)

 

Week of Sept 30:                 Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics

Quizzes on Aristotle due (Friday Oct 4)

               

Week Oct 7:                         Marx: “Alienated Labor”

Hume: "On Suicide”

Quizzes on Marx and Hume due (Friday Oct 11)

 

Week of Oct 14:                  Reading Week

 

Week of Oct 21:                  Schopenhauer: Studies in Pessimism

Quizzes on Schopenhauer due (Friday Oct 25)

 

 

Week Oct 28:                       Nietzsche: The Gay Science

Quizzes on Nietzsche due (Friday Nov 1)

 

Weeks of Nov 4:                  Sartre: “The Humanism of Existentialism”

 

Week of Nov 11:                 Sartre: “The Humanism of Existentialism”

Quiz on Sartre due (Friday Nov 15)

Second Paper Due (Sunday Nov 17)

 

Week of Nov 18:                 Tolstoy: “My Confession”

James: “The sick soul" & "The Divided Self”,  “Is life worth living?”

Quizzes on Tolstoy and James (Friday Nov 22)

 

 

Week Nov 25:                      Nagel: “The Absurd”

Quizzes on Nagel due (Friday Nov 29)

 

 

Week of Dec 2:                    Wolf: “The Meanings of Lives”

Quizzes on Wolf due (Tue Dec 3)

 

Dec 5-20:                              Final Exam Period

    Course Learning Objectives
  • To be able to critically read texts, in this case classic texts from the history of philosophy, and extract and evaluate their argumentative content.
  • To be able to clearly present the arguments in these texts in written form.
  • To be able to present, both in writing and in tutorial discussion, clear arguments of your own evaluating the arguments presented in those text.
    Relevant Links / Resources