AllLearn - Alliance For Lifelong Learning
Search Catalog and Library
Hills
Alliance for Lifelong LearningUniversity of OxfordleafStanford UniversityleafYale University-
HomeCourse CatalogLibraryEnroll
Are we rational creatures with free will—or are we driven by fate and uncontrollable feelings? Discuss these and other basic questions about the very nature of humanity.
arrow
dots Departments
American Studies
Archaeology
Art History
Classics
Current Events
Economics
History
Humanities
Literature
Music
Philosophy
Politics
Psychology
Women’s Studies
dots
Full Course Listings

dots

Keep Me Informed
Sign up to receive news and updates from AllLearn.

Your Email
dots

 
 

Philosophy/
Understanding Human Nature:
Who Do We Think We Are?
Course Image
Mar. 24-Jun. 1, 2003

Enroll
10 Weeks
Tuition: $249.00
Materials $32.95
Course Author: Annamaria Carusi, Department of Continuing Education, The University of Oxford Profile >

Online Instructor: Annamaria Carusi
Course Description
Take a Tour This course explores how humans understand themselves at their very core. Conceptions of the self can vary quite widely. While some people understand themselves in primarily political and economic terms, others locate their essence in religion, biology, and/or secular ideals. As students move through the course, they explore the ideas of Plato, Kant, Marx, Freud, and Sartre. They also study religious ideas from the Judeo-Christian and Eastern traditions, and consider some current debates in evolutionary science from a philosophical perspective. The question that frames our enquiry is whether we can uphold a view of ourselves as rational and free, and what it would mean for us if we could not. Would it, for example, make a difference to our conception of what we ought to strive for and of the good life? The course does not offer an answer to these questions. Rather, it is an opportunity for students to carry out explorations of their own, and as they do so, to come to learn something of the nature of philosophical questions and the ways of going about answering them.

The course would appeal to anyone who is interested in speculative thought on the nature of human being. Although the course is philosophical, no prior background in philosophy is required. Apart from an interest in the subject matter, an interest in coming to an understanding of philosophical method would be advantageous.

Students should expect to take away from this course an understanding of the problems involved in giving an account of human nature; an introduction to the most important attempts, historical and contemporary, to answer the question “What is human nature?”; the ability to recognize philosophical questions concerning human nature and to understand their place in an enquiry of this type; an introduction to philosophical method and an opportunity to learn to use it; the development of interpretational skills in the reading of different texts presented in the course; the development of reasoning and argumentative skills in coming to evaluate different positions and to express and justify their own position.
Course Activities
Readings and other activities.
During this ten-week course, students will read from assigned texts and prepare for weekly online discussions. Students will also be encouraged to write essays or other contributions, such as narratives, poems, or journalistic articles.
 
Online discussion.
Because the course aims not at telling students what to believe, but rather at introducing them to the various positions in the debate, and getting them to develop and defend their own position, ongoing online discussion is an integral part of the course. Using the course discussion board, participants can offer thoughtful responses to readings, debate with one another over the meaning of the texts, and receive guidance and feedback from the online instructor. Students participate by posting and reading comments at any time during the week.
 
Live chat.
Live chat is the natural complement to course discussions. Hosted by the online instructor, these regularly held, hour-long online sessions bring the class together in a lively and informal setting, in real time. Chats take place at varying times to accommodate different time zones and schedules. As a result, students may not be able to attend all the chats; however, transcripts of each session will be posted for later review.
 
Time commitment.
Students may expect to spend a 5 to 6 hours per week on course-related work: 3 hours completing reading assignments (50–60 pages) and 2 to 3 hours participating in online discussion and live chat.
 
Course Outline

Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Bodies, Minds, and Souls (Descartes, Hobbes, and Hume)
Week 3: Religion (East and West)
Week 4: Freedom and Rationality (Plato and Kant)
Week 5: Modes of Determinism: Economic (Marx)
Week 6: Modes of Determinism: Psychological (Freud)
Week 7: Modes of Determinism: Evolutionary (Lorenz)
Week 8: Modes of Freedom: Libertarian, Compatibilist and Extreme (Sartre)
Week 9: Gender and Race (Rousseau, Mill, Bracken, Holmstrom)
Week 10: Conclusions: The Good Life
Course Materials
The following materials will be sent to all enrolled students:
Stevenson, Leslie F., and & David L. Haberman. Ten Theories of Human Nature. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Stevenson, Leslie F. The Study of Human Nature: A Reader. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Course Author Profile
Annamaria Carusi teaches philosophy for the Oxford University Continuing Education Department and various colleges of Oxford University. Her areas of specialization are aesthetics, the philosophers Kant and Merleau-Ponty, and the philosophy of culture. She has published extensively in the pedagogy of philosophy, philosophy of art and of culture, and is currently doing research into teaching philosophy on the Internet.

Online Instructor Profile
Day-to-day and week-by-week course activities will be facilitated by Annamaria Carusi. She will maintain discussion boards and coordinate the overall course experience.

Enroll

 
   
 
Home |Course Tour |Log In |Help |Frequently Asked Questions |About AllLearn
University of Oxford  > Stanford University  > Yale University