PHIL 105 - Philosophy of Happiness

5 Credits

This course is about the nature of happiness. What is it? Is it overrated? Is it the goal of life? What connection, if any, does it have to a meaningful life? Do you have to be good to live a happy life or is it good to be bad? Are having health, money, a good job and relationships enough for a happy life? If you stop worrying and caring about the wrong things, will you be happy? What’s the role of luck in happiness? We examine both historical and contemporary answers to these questions, including those from the recent science of happiness.

Fees

Quarters Typically Offered
Fall Day, Online
Winter Day, Online
Spring Day, Online

Designed to Serve Students seeking Humanities Area 1 distribution credit; students needing AA credit; Running Start students; students with an interest in philosophy; students interested in psychology, welfare economics, sociology, public policy, medicine; general students.
Active Date 20230328T10:34:29

Grading Basis Decimal Grade
Class Limit 24
Contact Hours: Lecture 55
Total Contact Hours 55
Degree Distributions:
AA

Humanities Area I

Course Outline
1 - INTRODUCTION

Common Contemporary Ideas of Happiness
Philosophical Questions about Happiness

2 - ANCIENT APPROACHES

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
Epicureanism
Stoicism

3 - MODERN & CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

Enlightenment
Meaning and Meaninglessness
Contemporary Accounts

4 - SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES

Positive Psychology and Its Critics
Happiness Indices & Happy Societies

Student Learning Outcomes
Describe philosophical questions, problems, and debates regarding happiness

Explain and critique passages from historical and contemporary texts about happiness

Generate one's own arguments and conclusions with respect to philosophical questions about happiness

Describe how philosophy illuminates other areas of discourse about happiness