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 UIT Student Services or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
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
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.
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.
All of the required texts are in the course kit available at the bookstore.
Weekly online exercises: 6% 500 word expository essay: 13%
Tutorial Participation: 6% 1000 word critical essay: 25%
Final Exam: 50%
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)
- 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.
- Academic Honesty
- Student Rights and Responsibilities
- Religious Observance
- Grading Scheme and Feedback
- 20% Rule
No examinations or tests collectively worth more than 20% of the final grade in a course will be given during the final 14 calendar days of classes in a term. The exceptions to the rule are classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on Saturday and/or Sunday at any time, and courses offered in the compressed summer terms. - Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
