Have you ever wondered what makes you you? Are you more than just a very intelligent animal, being guided by instinct and the reasoning processes that occur in your brain? Is your brain just a fancy computer running a complex program? Do you have free will? Do you have a unique self? What if your body was replicated, molecule for molecule? Would that new body be you?
If you find such questions intriguing, and you'd like to read and evaluate what some very smart people have said about these issues, this is the class for you. We'll be reading some difficult, but fascinating, writings by philosophers such as: Cicero, Epictetus, Descartes, Hume, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Frankfurt, and Parfit. Class will involve discussing and challenging these authors. Assignments will include short essays in which you critique the authors on these issues, and exams in which you demonstrate your knowledge of the theories we'll be covering. By the end of the semester you will be quite familiar with several historically important theories of human nature, and you will have made progress on developing your own view about what (if anything) makes humans special.
If you'd like to get your textbook before the semester starts, the book will be:
The Person: Readings in Human Nature, edited by William O. Stephens (Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006). ISBN: 0131848119.
There will be a course website on K-State Online, which will have the syllabus and other materials for the class. Access to the course website is for enrolled students only.
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This page last updated 5/22/09