Conceptions of the Good Life
What is the good life? Our views about the good life differ widely across time and culture. Is the good life an intrinsic achievement - for example, something gained through the pursuit of positive mental health or emotional well being? Perhaps the good life is found externally, such as in our friendships or our social status? Courses in this cluster engage questions related to the good life: how it has been imagined within historical contexts, the processes by which we might seek it out, and what principles we use to make decisions about what constitutes the good life.
Associated Course Pairings:
Course Descriptions
Instructor: Emily Chan
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behavior
Format: Hybrid
"We are members of a cultural species. That is, we depend critically on cultural learning in virtually all aspects of our lives." (Heine, 2010). In this course, we will study how cultural factors shape psychology, and the manner in which psychology guides cultural behavior. It will include an in-depth consideration of the theories, methods, and the contemporary debates of studying culture and psychology. In addition to building a foundation of research that links culture to mental processes and the comparative study of cultural effects, students will study details of cultural psychology methodologies and will propose an empirical research project in cultural psychology.
Instructor: Felicia Chavez
Format: Fully Remote
This class is a safe space in which to engage the confidence, vulnerability and truthfulness that creative nonfiction asks of its practitioners.Beginning with tactile essays that juxtapose words and images, we will form the complex questions that reside at the heart of our work. We will also study craft, by excavating our "golden stories" and honoring the difficult choices writing presents through a careful act of construction involving the principles of arrangement, voice, imagery, and characterization. Paying tribute to Liz Lerman's "Critical Response Practice" we will employ an artist-centered workshop model.
CC100: Philosophy as a Way of Living
Instructor: Jonathan Lee
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Format: Fully Remote
What is it to lead a meaningful and good life? How can we embrace a way of living that is respectful of others and authentic to ourselves? This course explores a diverse array of thinkers and texts that seek to answer such questions and to help people understand how to live well. While different sections of "Philosophy as a Way of Living," may approach these questions in different ways, all sections will seek to draw upon and put into creative and critical conversation the diversity of ways in which philosophers across time and around the globe have grappled with the challenges of living a human life.
CC120: Topics in Philosophy and Literature
Instructor: Rick A. Furtak
Format: Flex
By focusing on the literary style of certain philosophical texts, and the philosophical aspects of selected literary works of art, this course will explore the comparative ability of different modes of writing to address traditional problems of philosophy and to clarify and illuminate particular features of human existence. Intensive practice in writing and revision will be a key component of the course.
CC100: Markets and Morality (I)
Instructor: Dan Johnson
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behavior
Format: Fully Remote
As the social science devoted to decision-making, economics is a mathematical analysis of how to optimize outcomes. But how do we make choices when the yardstick isn't obvious? How do we assess outcomes that are more moral than financial, more holistic than quantitative? Even more challenging, how do humans interact effectively when we don't agree on how to assess the outcomes, or don't even agree on the value systems we might use to evaluate the outcomes? This course is about how we make economic decisions, but more importantly it is about how we think about our own morality and the morality of those around us as we make decisions together. So each day we will advance your knowledge of the core principles of economic theory while reflecting on them critically to ascertain their implicit cultural assumptions (and therefore, also our own positionality as scholars and citizens).
CC120: Markets and Morality (II)
Instructor: Dan Johnson
Format: Fully Remote
In this writing-intensive sequel, we will explore how micro-level behaviors affect macro-level outcomes. We will explore how economic policy works (and how it doesn't), the inevitability of difficult trade-offs, and most importantly, how to write a policy proposal to empower social change. We will focus on identifying and describing specific imperfections in the world, ranging from social injustice to environmental concerns, then learn how to communicate effectively in order to inspire, educate, and create prototypes while respecting the importance of inertia, context and cultural norms.