What Is the Good Life? An Introduction to Ethical Philosophy

Level: Open to students entering grade 9 or 10 in fall 2011.

Session: II, July 19-August 5, 2011

Days & Time: Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM and 2:00-4:00 PM

Instructor: Justin Jennings

Course Description

Students investigate the nature of the good life through an introduction to the history of philosophical reflection on the subject. How are our lives most fruitfully to be spent?  What ought we to do?  What are our duties to others?  To what end is or ought human endeavor to be directed? These and other questions will be approached by way of reading the crucial passages from the works of the principal thinkers about these questions – Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Camus, Nietzsche and Kant.  Emphasis is given to the connection between philosophy as an academic discipline and philosophy as a tool for living.  The course aims not only to introduce students to the great moral thinkers, but also to enhance their abilities to think critically, both about those thinkers and about their own lives.

Students are required to keep a journal of their reactions to and thoughts on the readings, as well as to write a final paper evaluating one of the philosophers read during the term.  In addition, students will take part in various smaller in-class group and individual projects, including field trips, debates and creative projects.

Instructor(s)

Justin Jennings

Justin Jennings is a graduate student in the philosophy department at the University of California, Los Angeles. He works primarily in the history of philosophy (ancient, Kant and post-Kantian, as well as early analytic philosophy), ethics and political philosophy (questions centering around freedom and personhood) and the philosophy of language. He holds an M.A. in philosophy from UCLA, an M.Div. from Harvard and a double B.A. in philosophy and English literature from Wake Forest.

Specific course information, such as hours and instructors, are subject to change at the discretion of the University.