Freedom and the Self

Catalog description

This course explores the complex and interrelated concepts of freedom and the self. The bulk of our time will be devoted to a close reading of several philosophical texts in which these concepts loom large. The course ends with a careful examination of three novels that, in various ways, take up the central themes of the class. Our intention in doing so is to reflect on the way that imaginative novelists treat these themes. This will enable us to ask broader and more interesting questions about freedom and selfhood.