Happiness and Tragedy in Ancient and Modern Philosophy

Catalog description

Grads enroll in 216C. In this course, we'll examine questions about happiness or the good life and its relation to tragedy in several central ancient and modern authors. These include Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus, the Stoics, Kant, and Nietzsche. The questions we'll discuss include: What's relation between virtue and happiness? Is virtue, for example, necessary or sufficient for happiness? What role do things other than virtue have on our well-being? Can bad luck prevent you from being happy? How do the views of the Greek tragedians differ from those of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics on these questions? How do the views of moderns such as Kant and Nietzsche differ from those of our ancient authors? Taught by David Charles.