Philosophy 119 - The Examined Life

Institution:

Whitman College

Subject:

Description:

not offered 2008-09 Socrates famously asserted, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Do we really believe this If so, what does it mean to practice, day-by-day, an examined life Beyond the ancient Greeks, Montaigne took up these questions at the beginning of Modernity through writing a new kind of philosophical essay. This new kind of philosophically self-reflexive writing was extended by Emerson in his day-by-day journal; and the demands of the examined life were then further developed in the writings of such thinkers as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Foucault. Using exemplary selections from these thinkers, we will work out the necessary and sufficient conditions of the practice of the examined life, and then experiment with different essay forms in order to work out the kind of writing that today is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for living an examined life.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.whitman.edu

Phone Number:

(509) 527-5111

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Semester

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