Course Description

This course explores the major philosophical questions about the good life and a good death, and what is a meaningful life from a multi-cultural perspective. The effects of class, gender, and ethnicity on conceptions of the good life and death are analyzed. The following issues are also explored: happiness and the good life, virtue and the good life, quantity vs. quality of life, hedonism and pleasure, authentic existence and how to go towards one's death authentically, the possibility of disembodied existence, the nature of consciousness, the nature and significance of individuality and personal identity, concepts of reincarnation or transmigration of souls as these appear in major religious traditions, the nature and significance of so-called “paranormal” experiences, and the meaning of salvation or liberation or transcendence in major religious traditions (concepts of heaven, nirvana, moksa, satori, etc.). Required readings are taken from classic texts of Western and non-Western philosophy and religion, as well as contemporary American feminist philosophy, and African, aborigine, and native American sources.