Philosophy Capstone Course

We live in a society that places enormous value on progress, innovation, novelty, improvement, and the like. In this course, we will engage in a sustained, critical investigation of this value-structure. We will ask what difference it might make to the quality of a life-to its goodness, and to the goodness of the experience of living it-whether it is conceived and structured as a progression towards something external to it (no matter what that something happens to be), or whether it is instead conceived and structured as an open-ended activity engaged in for its own sake. Doing so will allow us to ask about a different set of values, one that includes such things as maintenance, preservation, stability, and reliability. If the dominant ethical imperative of the present is "Always do better tomorrow than you did today" (an ethic of improvement), the alternative ethical imperative we'll be considering would be "You did well today; now do it again tomorrow" (an ethic of repetition, we might call it). In investigating these seemingly opposed value-structures, we'll also ask about their potential connections with, for example, boredom, anxiety, and burnout-and other ethical/psychological maladies prevalent today. Philosophy 3991 must be taken by all philosophy majors who are not writing an honors project. Prerequisite: Senior standing, major in philosophy; preference given to those majors not pursuing Honors. Credit 3 hours.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM

Philosophy Capstone Course

PHILOSOPHY 3991

Section 01