History of Wellbeing and Happiness

3 credits · Undergraduate

(3 hrs Lecture) This course introduces students to the history of the broad concept of wellbeing in its various historical iterations (e.g. good fortune, contentment, joy, self-care, happiness) in "the West" from Antiquity to the present. The students explore the intellectual, social, political, cultural, religious, medical, and ethical contexts in which wellbeing was imagined, defined, critiqued, or aspired to. Topics may include ancient and modern medical concepts of wellbeing, medieval mysticism, humanist and scientific utopias, alchemy and the philosopher's stone, romanticism, feminist critiques of the 'positive thinking' movement, and happiness as a human right.