Just Life

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Just Life is an interdisciplinary exploration of what it means to live an ethical life of purpose, meaning and impact. Drawing on philosophy, political theory, sociology and theology but also on contemporary fiction, the course will explore moral purpose, theories of justice and understandings of why and how we are called to the common good. It will foreground core principles of Catholic Social Teaching linking them to other disciplinary and theological traditions. The course will also introduce students to research and evidence linking robust moral purpose to positive health outcomes and higher levels of happiness. But more significantly, it will provide a space for students to begin discerning their own moral purpose beyond the predictable false binaries of money or happiness or success or community. It will also challenge students to consider how they might support the common good across their lifetimes in whatever profession or community they find themselves a part of. Through lectures, discussions, exercises, experiments and short essays this course is where students will come to understand that living a just life is an all-day, every day pursuit. It is a way of life, it is not what you do but who you are or can be. Being good means doing good. Students must be part of the Institute for Social Concerns McNeill Justice Fellows program to take this course.