Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Course Description

Americans are committed to happiness as one of the core values on which our nation rests—as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, we hold as inalienable rights “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But what is happiness? In what does a happy life consist? This course will look at how conceptions of happiness and a happy life have changed over time from the ancient Greeks to the present day. We will discuss the problems of trying to study an emotion historically, the contradictions in the philosophical conceptions of happiness, and the breakthroughs in our psychological understandings of this transient emotion.

Student Outcomes

At the end of the semester, students will be able to: - evaluate historical arguments, historiographical debates and develop and frame historical arguments in their own work. - communicate complex historical analysis in written form with appropriate scholarly attribution and communicate effectively in class discussions and presentations. - understand the past with respect to diversities of culture, geography and chronology.

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