Life Worth Living: Theoretical Views and Personal Values

Course Description:

This course is the first of a pair of courses based on the same essential questions; “What makes life worth living?” and “How can we live a life worth living?”. The purpose of this pair of courses is to give students opportunity to be a part of a learning community and join others on a personal journey. This foundational course aims at providing students with insights from various fields. Students will go through theoretical material from different disciplines (such as philosophy, psychology, diversity studies), and from different regions (Western, Asian, African). This will be done through students reading, discussions and critical reflection on both the material and on students’ own values and ideas. The teaching will aim at making students able to apply the knowledge, whether to current social reality or to their own personal situation and life, and not be passive receivers of “world wisdom.”

Although the course requires students to read and engage with different theories or views about what makes life good and worthy of living, the pedagogical approach is based on engagement with questions rather than learning theories or becoming versed in certain moral, psychological or religious traditions. The questions are meant to be both outward-looking and inward-looking. By outward-looking, we mean that they engage students and teachers in a discussion of different moral values, various traditions, and social structures. By inward-looking, we mean that the students and teachers are encouraged to take a personal stance and use the questions to reflect on their own lives.