Philosophy 315: Happiness

This course is a focused exploration of the nature of happiness. In the course, we will look at the nature of happiness as it is articulated in both historical and contemporary contexts.  In the first half of the course, we will look at ancient conceptions of happiness, focusing on the accounts offered in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Cicero’s On Moral Ends.  In the second half of the course, we will turn our attention to contemporary accounts of happiness, looking at treatments of happiness in both psychology and philosophy.