Course Syllabus

Drawing on the disciplines that make up the Humanities and the considerable resources at UF in support of the Humanities, this course investigates the very nature of the human condition. Applying multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to explore what is a good life, students consider the cost of the good life, examine how people have chosen to live as members of local and global communities, and analyze conceptions and expressions of beauty, power, love, and health.

For Part 1 (Individual) and Part 2 (Society) of the course, students explore questions related to the good life first from the perspective of the individual and then from the perspective of the community and society. The class will consider to what extant the pursuit of the good life is individually driven and determined and how society impacts and shapes the efforts of the individual to achieve the good life. For Part 3 (Special Topic), students use Sophocles' Antigone as a lens to study in depth questions about the individual and society that were the focus of Parts 1 and 2 of the course. For Part 4 (This I Believe), students reflect on what they value in a short audio essay.

IDS 1161 fulfills the UF Quest requirement and 3 credits of the Humanities (H) General Education Links to an external site. Requirement.

Humanities courses provide instruction in the history, key themes, principles, terminology, and theory or methodologies used within a humanities discipline or the humanities in general. Students will learn to identify and to analyze the key elements, biases and influences that shape thought. These courses emphasize clear and effective analysis and approach issues and problems from multiple perspectives.

These general education objectives will be accomplished through:

• Examination of the ways different people from different societies across time conceptualize the good life, the meaning and value individuals ascribe to the lives that they live or want to live, and the choices, costs, and benefits of the good life.
• Evaluation of conflicts and tensions that arise between the individual and the community, the normative and the exceptional, culture and nature, needs and wants, pleasure and happiness, short-term benefits and long-term consequences of the pursuit of the good life.
• Communication of concepts, expressions, and representations of the good life clearly and effectively in written and oral form as stated in the rubrics of the course.

At the end of the course, students will be expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes in content, critical thinking, communication, and connection:

• Content: Students identify, describe, and explain the history, underlying theory, and methodologies used. Students will acquire a knowledge of the different conceptions and representations of the good life, how such conceptions and representations vary in time and place, and the impact that they have on the way people live their lives. Achievement of this learning outcome will be assessed through the Discussion Board Posts, Essay 1, and Essay 2.
• Critical Thinking: Students identify and analyze key elements, biases and influences that shape thought within the subject area. They approach issues and problems within the discipline from multiple perspectives. Students will analyze the costs and benefits of the good life and the tensions that arise as individuals and groups of individuals pursue the good life. Achievement of this learning outcome will be assessed through the Discussion Board posts, Essay 1, and Essay 2.
• Communication: Students communicate knowledge, thoughts and reasoning clearly and effectively. Achievement of this learning outcome will be assessed through Essay 1 and Essay 2.
• Connection: Students connect course content with critical reflection on their intellectual, personal, and professional development at UF and beyond. Achievement of this learning outcome will be assessed through the online discussions, the Sacred Space Postcard, and the TIB Audio Essay.

Readings and works are available in the weekly modules, except for the following texts, which you can purchase through local bookstores and online retailers either as eBooks or paperbacks. *Please note that assignments that are submitted citing translations other than these listed below will not be accepted. No exceptions. 

• Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, trans. by Joachim Neugroschel (New York: Penguin Books, 2002). ISBN: 978-0142437186.
• Sophocles, Antigone, trans. by Ruby Blondell (Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 1998). ISBN: 978-0941051255.

You can find the required readings by going to the weekly modules. For your convenience, a complete list of course readings and works is also provided below.

Thinking about the Good Life

• Joel K. Kupperman, “Myth One: Pursuing Comfort and Pleasure Will Lead to the Best Possible Life,” in Six Myths about the Good Life: Thinking about What Has Value (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006), 1–21.
• Tau Te Ching, translated by D.C. Lau, Center Tao Links to an external site., Chapters 1-4, 22-23, 28-29, 42-44, web.

Seeking the Good Life

• Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, trans. by Joachim Neugroschel (New York: Penguin Books, 2002).

Embodying the Good Life

• Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (New York: Random House, 2010), 1–7.
• Susan Bordo, "Reading the Slender Body," in Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, edited by Susan Bordo (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 185-212.
• Greg Garber, five-part series on sports injuries, ESPN, January 24-28, 2005, web.

Fighting for the Good Life

• Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (16 April 1963), The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n. d., web.
• Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Vol 2: 1962-1994 (London: Abacus, 194), 431-38.
• “Wo-Haw between Two Worlds,” a drawing by Kiowa Artist, c. 1875, Missouri Historical Society, Colombia, MO.

Owning the Good Life

• Geraldine Brooks, “The Painted Desert,” Griffith Review 2 (2005): 146–57.
• “Ngurrara: The Great Sandy Desert Canvas,” National Museum Australia, n. d., web. 
• Michael Sandel, “Markets and Morals,” in What Money Can’t Buy: The Limits of Markets (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010), 3-15.

Sustaining the Good Life

• Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic,” from A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (New York: Oxford University Press, 1949), 201–226.
• Wangari Maathai, “Foresters without Diplomas,” in Unbowed: A Memoir (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 119-138.

Constructing the Good Life

• Randy Hester, “Subconscious Landscapes of the Heart,” Places 2 (1985): 10–22.
• Kirk Savage, “The Politics of Memory: Black Emancipation and the Civil War Monument,” in Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, edited by John Gillis (Princeton: Princeton University, 1994), 127–49.

Special Topic

• Sophocles, Antigone, trans. by Ruby Blondell (Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 1998).