More About Life Worth Living

Through our courses in Yale College, collaboration with a global network of educators, and public outreach for life-long learners, the Life Worth Living initiative aims to facilitate conversation on questions of meaning and purpose across important and enduring lines of difference.

A Yale student once complained to one of us: "You mean the world's great traditions have been wrestling with the big questions of life for 3,000 years, and now I'm supposed to invent my own answers—and in my free time?" These are fair concerns. The fact is that, while we do need to respond to each of these questions ourselves, we don't need to do so alone. We can—we should—take up the big questions of life in conversation with one another and with the world's cultural, philosophical, and religious traditions. And we don't need to do this in our free time. We can take up these questions in our classrooms and in intentional, dedicated space in our daily lives.

The Life Worth Living initiative invites students, teachers, and lifelong learners to marry the best of their intellectual energy to the most profound of their existential questions. We hope you'll join us. We have much to learn from one another!