Being Human

Catalog description

This course explores how classical and contemporary philosophers have addressed perennial questions surrounding the nature of human persons and human existence. In seeking to understand human nature, philosophers explore a range of different features of human beings that distinguish us from other animals such as our capacity for thought and consciousness, our apparent freedom to choose our actions, and our attempt to find meaning. Accordingly, this class will take up questions such as: What does it mean to be human? How do human beings differ from other animals and/or from machines? How should we understand the nature of the human mind and its relationship to the body? Is there life after death? What does it mean for human persons to be free and morally responsible? What considerations shape our identity as human persons and selves both at a time and over the course of an entire life?.