2020s2-apphil1100n-03

AP/PHIL1100 3.0 N: The Meaning of Life

Offered by: PHIL


 Session

Summer 2020

 Term

S2

Format

LECT

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 Start Up

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    Additional Course Instructor/Contact Details

Course Director: Henry Jackman

Office: 434 South Ross

Office hours (online):  Online via e-mail

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.

    Additional Requirements

This is a ‘blended’ course in that (A) the main lectures are pre-recorded and can be viewed on-line at any time, and (B) students must also enrol in a tutorial section that meets online at a set time each week.

The lecture recordings will be available on the class Moodle page.

The Tutorials will be meeting on the Zoom online platform, and students should have an internet connection fast enough for them to participate in Zoom meetings.

 

    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%

1500 word critical essay:               40%

    Organization of the Course

Philosophy 1100: Tentative schedule, Summer 2020

 

Week June 29:                     Introduction: Course Mechanics

Introduction: Course Themes

Introduction: Arguments

 

Plato: Apology

Plato: Crito

 

Quizzes on Themes & Arguments and on Plato due (Friday July 3)

 

Week of July 6:                   Epictetus: The Handbook

Epicurus: “Letter to Menoeceus”, Principal Doctrines

Nozick: “The Experience Machine”

 

Nagel: “Death”

 

Quizzes on Epicurus & Epictetus, and on Nagel due (Friday July 10)

First paper due (Sunday July 12)

 

Week of July 13:                 Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics

               

                Marx: “Alienated Labor”

Hume: "On Suicide”

 

Quizzes on Aristotle Marx and Hume due (Friday July 17)

 

Week of July 20:                 Schopenhauer: Studies in Pessimism

 

Nietzsche: The Gay Science

 

Quizzes on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche due (Friday July 24)

 

Week of July 27:                 Sartre: “The Humanism of Existentialism”

 

Quizzes on Sartre due (Friday July 31)

Second Paper Due (Sunday Aug 2)

Week of Aug 3                     Tolstoy: “My Confession”

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

 

Nagel: “The Absurd”

 

Wolf: “The Meanings of Lives”

 

Quizzes on Tolstoy, James, Nagel and Wolf due (Friday Aug 7)

 

                                           Third Paper Due Sunday Aug 16

    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