HST21008 - A Life Worth Living
HST21008: A Life Worth Living
20 credits (semester 2)
Module Leader: Rev Dr Casey Strine (2024-25)
Module Summary
What does it mean for a life to go well? How does one live life well? What is a flourishing life? These questions have shaped intellectual endeavour and the decisions of people for millennia. Life Worth Living explores approaches to these questions through engagement with diverse traditions/thinkers including classical Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, Utilitarianism, Existentialism, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
The module includes historical analysis of these traditions, engagement with their primary texts, visits from individuals whose lives are shaped by them, and assessments to help students develop their own vision of a life worth living.
Life Worth Living explores the ways that different religious and philosophical traditions have approached the following questions:
1. To whom or what are we responsible for living our lives a certain way?
2. What is a human being and what is their place in the world?
3. What does it mean for life:
a. to feel good?
b. to go well?
c. to be led well?
4. What is the role of suffering in a good life?
5. What should we do when we fail to live a good life?
In short, this module invites you to answer the questions ‘how do I want to be in the world’ and ‘what vision of flourishing is worthy of our humanity’ by critically engaging with some of the most notable responses to that question across history.
Drs Strine and Forstenzer—who developed and teach Life Worth Living at Sheffield—offer the module as part of a worldwide network of educators researching how best to teach these topics. The research is coordinated by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, and funded by the John Templeton Foundation. As part of the module, you will be invited (subject to giving your consent) to participate in this research by offering feedback on the module and responding to qualitative and quantitative research questionnaires.
Participation is entirely optional, and has no bearing on your mark in the module.
Teaching
The module is taught via 11 weekly lectures, and 11 weekly seminars.
Assessment
1. An essay tracing the emergence and early development of one of the religious traditions studied in the first half of the module. This is 2,500 words in length, and uses the History essay marking criteria. This counts for 40% of the final mark.
2. A learning journal that includes three 250 word responses to questions on the primary texts read and discussed in the weekly seminars. This counts for 20% of the final mark.
3. A summative essay outlining an aspect of the student’s personal vision of a life worth living in dialogue with two (or more) of the traditions studied in the module. This is 1,000 words in length, and uses the History essay marking criteria. This counts for 40% of the final mark.
Please see this document for more details.
Module Aims
The aims of this module are:
This unit draws upon a range of philosophical and religious traditions to help students develop habits of historical analysis, critical thinking, and self reflection that will equip them for the life-long process of discerning the good life.
To read and critically engage with foundational texts of each tradition (in English translation).
To read and critically engage with key historiography about each tradition.
To develop students’ ability to articulate in writing and orally the content of and historical circumstances for the emergence of the ideas in each tradition.
To host guest practitioners from the various traditions in order to discuss how these texts and traditions shape their life, ethical thinking, and vocation.
To facilitate community engagement activities that explore the topics and traditions covered in order to gain insights and knowledge from people beyond the university.
Oral and written exercises to help students to present their own views on what makes a life worth living.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Outline the historical circumstances key to understanding the emergence of each tradition/thinker studied in the module
Describe what each of the relevant traditions advocates to be the good life by articulating what it means for life to go well, be led well, and to feel good.
Summarize texts from each tradition that provide the basis for these views on the good life.
Discuss and critically analyse the reasons and motivations each tradition offers for its view of the good life.
Outline what each tradition suggests a person should do when they fail to live the good life.
Engage in thoughtful and respectful dialogue with other students, instructors, and members of the public about their views on one or more tradition and the form of the good life.
Disagree peacefully and productively with other students, instructors, and dialogue partners about the big questions of life, namely, what provides joy and meaning in life.
Articulate a personal vision of the good life and explain what personal changes in thought, action, or feeling are necessary in order to live in this way.
Explain the difference between engaging with a text and/or tradition in a historically descriptive and critical manner versus engaging with a text and/or tradition in a constructive and normative mode.
Additional Material
This lecture by Dr Matthew Croasmun at Yale gives an overview of why this module exists: