First Year Seminar 191HFA11 - FYS- Hacking Happiness

Everyone wants to be happy and satisfied with their life. But what does this mean? How do you obtain happiness, wellbeing, and satisfaction, or if you have those things, how did you get them? Can we identify practices in our daily lives that will bring us more of these valuable mental states? This first-year seminar will explore both the science and the philosophy of the good life. We will investigate the nature of the good life through philosophical readings, and we will attempt to improve our lives through the application of psychological theory. Along the way we will reflect on the values that inform our lives and the decisions we make.

Open to first-year Humanities and Fine Arts Exploratory Track students and first-year HFA Majors. First year (Fr or Soph)