"The unexamined life is not worth living."

So said Socrates during his trial in Athens, where he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. His real crime was in subjecting all of the sacred cows of his time to dialectical inquiry--what we today call "critical thinking." Socrates believed that the pursuit of truth and the perfection of the self were the highest virtues available to the individual. The purpose of this unit is not necessarily to question the beliefs of students (though that may occur), but rather to make them aware of the depth of the choices that life demands of them, and simultaneously to equip them with the rhetorical and linguistic competencies to enable higher-order consideration of these subjects.  Through a wide range of texts, we will explore what it means to live an examined life. 

In Unit 1, students will: 

1. Collaborate in Socratic Seminar discussions

2. Write an Apology (or explanation) of their own highest values and what it means to live a purposeful life

What does it mean to be human in a post-human age? Can human nature be "perfected"? 

In this unit, we will examine Aldous Huxley's classic dystopian vision, Brave New World, as well as current non-fiction texts to explore the relationship between technology and human dignity. 

Huxley envisioned a world in which humans are grown in artificial wombs, sorted into classes, and kept in perfect conformity in a perfectly pain-free society, the World State. Huxley's perspicacity and the strength of his vision are so great that this work, written in 1932, has maintained its relevance for nearly a century and inspired numerous films such as Gattica, Equilubrium, and many others. 

Brave New World prompts us to ask deep questions about human nature and the nature of freedom, questions which are as important today as they ever have been, maybe even more so. 

In Unit 2, students will: 

1. Read Brave New World.

2. Write a literary analysis of Brave New World examining its relevance to contemporary circumstances.

3. Do independent research into new technologies and present their findings to the class.

How can we stay grounded in a changing world? 

In this unit, students will embark on an analytical journey into Chinua Achebe's masterpiece Things Fall Apart. This unit will serve as a comprehensive exploration of the novel's rich literary elements, cultural context, and universal themes. Through a series of engaging activities, discussions, and writing assignments, students will develop advanced analytical skills, enabling them to dissect the text and apply their insights to broader literary and cultural contexts.

In Unit 3, students will: 

1. Read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe as well as supplementary and related materials such as "The Second Coming" by Yeats. 

2. Analyze the novel by comparing it to another work, discovering how both texts treat the same theme and differ in their messages about it. 

How can technology change the way that we perceive reality, morality, and ourselves?

For over two centuries, the specter of the Luddite rebellions in England have been used to dismiss any criticism of new or emerging technologies. However, with the emergence and acceleration of AI in recent years, the debate has been reopened among the public. In this unit, students will explore the different ways in which technology affects our lives in unexpected ways and how we should approach and evaluate new tech. From Neil Postman's prescient Entertaining Ourselves to Death to Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, we will hear from dissident voices and try to determine what the nature of a healthy relationship between humans and our technology would look like.

In Unit 4, we will: 

1. Read excerpts from The Shallows and Entertaining Ourselves to Death as well as other secondary sources. 

2. Do our own research on current ethical dilemmas surrounding modern tech and present our findings.

3. Solve all the world's problems (just kidding...)