2023s2-apphil1100m-03

AP/PHIL1100 3.0 M: The Meaning of Life

Offered by: PHIL


 Session

Summer 2023

 Term

S2

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 Start Up

Course Websites hosted on York's "eClass" are accessible to students during the first week of the term. It takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access your course website. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week. To log in to your eClass course visit the York U eClass Portal and login with your Student Passport York Account. If you are creating and participating in Zoom meetings you may also go directly to the York U Zoom Portal.

For further course Start Up details, review the Getting Started webpage.

For IT support, students may contact University Information Technology Client Services via askit@yorku.ca or (416) 736-5800. Please also visit Students Getting Started UIT or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.


    Additional Course Instructor/Contact Details

Course Director: Henry Jackman

Office: 434 South Ross

Office hours (online): TBA

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

Technical Requirements for taking the course

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 at a set time each week.

Please note that this class has an in person final exam, and so students must be able to come to write the exam on the York Campus during the exam period.  (August 17-24)

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

    Required Course Text / Readings

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

    Weighting of Course

Weekly online exercises:                      6%                   500 word expository essay:           13%

Tutorial Participation:                           6%                   1000 word critical essay:               25%

Final Exam:                                     50%

    Organization of the Course

Philosophy 1100: Tentative schedule, Summer 2023

 

Week of July 3:                   Introduction: Course Mechanics

Introduction: Course Themes

Introduction: Arguments

 

Plato: Apology

Plato: Crito

 

Quiz on Themes & Arguments and on Plato due (Friday July 7)

 

Week of July 10:                 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 14)

 

First paper due (Sunday July 16)

Week of July 17:                 Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics

 

                Marx: “Alienated Labor”

Hume: "On Suicide”

 

Quizzes on Aristotle, and on Marx & Hume due (Friday July 21)

 

Week of July 24:                 Schopenhauer: Studies in Pessimism

 

Nietzsche: The Gay Science

 

Quizzes on Schopenhauer and on Nietzsche due (Friday July 28)

 

Weeks of July 31:               Sartre: “The Humanism of Existentialism”

 

Quiz on Sartre due (Friday Aug 4)

 

Second Paper Due (Sunday Aug 6)

 

Week of Aug 7:                   James: “On a Certain Blindness….” & “What Makes Life Significant?”

 

Nagel: “The Absurd”

 

Wolf: “The Meanings of Lives”

 

Quizzes on James, Nagel and Wolf due (Friday Aug 11)

 

Aug 17-24:                           Final Exam (exact date TBD)

    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