Faculty First Year Seminars 197PHIL3 - Agency,Rationality, GoodLife

What moves you to act? When are you responsible for what you do? Can we ever act against what we judge to be best? Why should we do the right thing? Is doing the right thing against my own self-interest ? unless I get caught doing wrong? We will explore Socrates? answers to these and other thorny questions that are central to the meaning of our lives and yet so often taken for granted. Consider: What is it to live a good life? How do you know if your life is successful? Is it to have health, wealth and power? Pleasure? Is it something you can control? Does the good life include morality? We will read several of Plato?s dialogues and discuss Socrates? surprising views about agency, rationality and the good life ? as counterintuitive for the majority of ancient Greeks as they are for many of us today.

Freshmen Only