Introduction to Class

Humans are social beings. Their biology makes it imperative that they care for each other, else the species would not survive. The tension between protecting oneself and reaching out to others is the theme of human development and the continuing concern of art: the individual’s unique sense of self, poised  against the legitimate claims the group makes as the price of membership, are forever at contest.

The idea of utopia is about the human effort to get things right. Faced with the reality of suffering, pain and death, humans have invented/imagined good places and great leaders. Some have worked to make those places real. Utopias represent our best efforts and most elevated aspirations.

Likewise, the books called “dystopias” represent the fear we carry that, without deliberate and concerted effort,  things can go very wrong for us, that unchecked human desire for power can bring ruin to many.

We know that plants are phototropic: they grow toward the light. In a similar way, humans are socio-tropic: the reach toward the strongest, nearest influences on their moral development. Our reading and thinking this semester explores imagined and real life responses to those influences.

The questions that inform our inquiry are these: What makes a good life? How can humans be happy? What is the nature of happiness? How many ways can we imagine to achieve it? Philosophers, of course, have pondered these questions for millennia. We will not resolve  them buy December but, as the wise book says, “You need not complete this labor; neither can you cease from it.”

Here are challenges for your thinking this fall: What can you learn here that can inform your decision about how best to live? In what way(s) can you be happy? What in your communities is designed to enhance your life? What can you do for your communities to make them better?