The Examined Life

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Offered in the Spring term. Admission to the course only by instructor permission; limited to successful alumni of PHIL 10111 God and the Good Life. This course has three components. (i) Students will receive training to be a peer dialogue facilitator for God and the Good Life, learning how to lead GGL students in probative dialogue and self-reflection. (ii) Students will do intensive reading and discussion of approaches to living "the philosophical life." We will study the genre of philosophical apologies (including Socrates, Augustine, Cardinal Newman, Tolstoy and Friedrich Nietzsche). And We will look at radical proposals for living philosophically from Sextus Empiricus, St. Benedict, and the American pragmatists. (iii) Students will design and lead a practical philosophy immersion experience for seminar-mates. The expectation is that students in this course will serve at least one semester as a GGL fellow. Participation in this course is by invitation.