HUMS 216 The Good Life

Division of Liberal Arts

3 credits 45.0 hours
200 level undergraduate course

How does a person live his or her life? What goals does he or she aspire to achieve? And what norms is he or she guided by in pursuit of those goals? What, in short, is the ‘good life?’ This course will examine three different versions of the good life from Western social and cultural history to see what they are, how they differ, and whether they have anything to teach us about living our lives today. We begin with classical virtue in the culture of ancient Greece and Rome where we will examine works of philosophy and tragedy. We then move to the Christian revolution in conceptions of virtue evidenced in scripture, epic poetry, and painting. We conclude with the modern era and the rise of bourgeois or middle-class conceptions of virtue in autobiography and the novel.

Prerequisites LACR*102 or LACR*103

This course is not repeatable for credit.
This course is equated with the following courses: HUMS*210, HUMS*211, HUMS*212, HUMS*213, HUMS*214, HUMS*215, HUMS*216, HUMS*217, HUMS*218, HUMS*219, HUMS*220, HUMS*221, HUMS*222, HUMS*223, HUMS*224, HUMS*225, HUMS*226, HUMS*227, HUMS*228, HUMS*229