PHIL 112.001 – Making Sense of Ourselves

Instructor: Genae Matthews. This course meets MWF 10:10 – 11:00 a.m. in CW 105.

This course will explore a range of questions concerning life’s meaning. What is the difference between a happy life and a meaningful one? What is it to be oppressed and how do we find meaning under oppressive conditions? Are we responsible for making our lives, and the lives of others, go well? Does a meaningful life depend, in some way, on the possibility of death? We will survey answers to these questions, and related others, using resources from both historical and contemporary philosophy, literature, and film. In doing so, we will pay special attention to what non-Western, feminist, trans, and disabled scholars have to say about what a meaningful life might look like.