COURSE VISION

For many philosophers, Eastern and Western, philosophy has been more than an effort to answer fundamental theoretical questions. It has been an activity aimed at changing one’s orientation to the world and, thus, how one lives one’s life. This course will explore Chinese, Greco-Roman, and contemporary versions of the idea that philosophy should be seen as a way of living a good life.

Course Schedule

The course will run self-paced for seven weeks, beginning January 10.

Unit 1, Philosophy as a Way of Life: January 10 – January 23
Unit 2, Positive Psychology: January 24 – January 30
Unit 3, Confucianism: January 31 – February 13
Unit 4, Aristotle: February 14 – February 27

Course Expectations

Throughout the course, you will encounter a series of video lectures, recorded panel discussions, readings, and exercises. You will be invited to comment directly on the readings and engage with each other as a community through these comments. The exercises will further encourage you to think critically about your beliefs and values, with an emphasis on developing your own answers to deep questions. While not required, we recommend you purchase a blank journal specifically to document your journey and reflections through the material in this course and beyond.

Acknowledgements

There are a number of individuals and institutions who have helped make this course and website possible.

Much of the momentum building up to this course came from events over the preceding years: an NEH Summer Institute held at Wesleyan University in 2018, and the founding of a Philosophy as a Way of Life Consortium by the University of Notre Dame with funding from the Mellon Foundation, which is hosting annual summer conferences.

We would also like to thank people at Wesleyan’s ITS and Center for Pedagogical Development: Alyssa Marinaccio, Rachel Schnepper, Jennifer Rose, Amy Grillo, Sarah Ryan, and Jeffrey Goetz.

Special thanks to Brianna Mebane, our student web design consultant, the Middlesex Community College students who expertly filmed our lectures, and Parker Griffin for our course website photo.