Philosophies of Life

This course will explore several of the most prominent historical and contemporary philosophies of life. These life philosophies constitute holistic worldviews that express their followers’ highest values and commitments. Some of these life philosophies are usually categorized as religions; others are more often associated with philosophy, ethics, politics, or even science. But what unites them is that each one provides for its adherents an all-encompassing lens through which to understand the world, as well as a powerful motive for living. These various “-isms” all provide their devotees with an answer to the question, “What is worth living for?”There are countless additional philosophies of life that we cannot cover in this course, but those included have been chosen in part because they arguably represent what William James calls “live options” for contemporary denizens of Western culture. While these traditions have developed across centuries and in some cases even millennia (and we will encounter them in rough correspondence to their chronological development), each one retains a sizable subsection of followers within our society to this day. Each is therefore worth studying, not merely as historical relics of the past, but as relevant perspectives in the ongoing quest for meaning and wisdom. Broadly speaking, they represent the biggest ideas that we live by. In familiarizing ourselves with these philosophies of life, we will come to know both our neighbors and ourselves.