What does it mean to lead a good life? This question is at the centre of Professor Carlos Fraenkel’s PHIL 202: The Good Life, an undergraduate level introductory course in the history of philosophy that challenges students to understand and think through numerous philosophical questions spanning metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, ethics, and politics.
The course aims to introduce students to “unconventional philosophical experiments in living”, with students engaging with the words and works of Socrates, Diogenes, Sartre, and other philosophers.
A Course Like No Other
Professor Fraenkel had been thinking of creating a course like this one for some time and drew his inspiration from the various ways in which ancient philosophers grapple with the question of how we should live, and the very colourful and strange ways philosophers choose to answer that specific question.
“Diogenes of Sinope in the 4th century BCE chooses to live in an empty barrel to show his disdain for wealth and power,” says Fraenkel. “When Alexander the Great offers to grant him any wish, Diogenes tells him ‘Please step aside, you’re blocking the sun!’”
Of course, Fraenkel doesn’t expect his students to move into a barrel- but encourages his students to see how these philosophers can encourage them to scrutinize what society has taught them about happiness and failure.
“Students are navigating all these big decisions—what to study, which career to choose, which social circles to join, which party to vote for - I want to give them the opportunity to think about how to craft a good life in conversation with philosophers from Socrates to Sartre,” says Frankel. “ A second, more urgent reason is that we are being engulfed by cascading crises—extreme weather, divisive ideologies, intractable wars, to name a few. The philosophical debate about how to live is a powerful catalyst for reflection on what we want our lives and societies to look like and on ways to get there.”
Throughout the course, students take part in tutorial conferences led by a dedicated team of three teaching assistants, Stavroula Theodorakopoulou, Grey Lorbetskie, and Ron Buenaventura.
"As a classicist, I was fascinated by the students' strong engagement with ancient philosophy, which during our tutorials sparked debates extending to contemporary ethical questions,” says Stavroula. “I particularly enjoyed reading the final papers, where students extracted life advice from the philosophical theories they learnt, showing how relevant ancient philosophy remains today."
The conferences are built to encourage active discussions around the course readings and lectures.
“Students were especially eager to discuss weekly material in light of current events and pop culture,” says teaching assistant Grey. “While many of my students had never taken a philosophy class before, every student engaged with the material like a natural philosopher!"
“The students were thoroughly engaged with the material and always had something insightful to say in conferences,” adds Ron. “They made me look forward to running conferences every week!"
Encouraging Philosophical Debate
A student’s time at university is an important and formative experience; learning how to debate opposing views, how to think critically and express your arguments and reasoning are only some of the skills that will benefit students as they leave university.
“It’s fun to get into philosophical debates and learn about all these different and conflicting views, but at some point we have to get on with life, make decisions, choose one path or another—even if the philosophical debate is never conclusive,” says Fraenkel.
To help students find a solution to this, Frankel introduced them to the idea of “fallibilism” as it appears in the philosophy of Socrates and John Stuart Mill.
“It’s OK to act according to the beliefs and values that, upon careful examination, seem right to us- still, we can never completely rule out that we’re wrong,” he says. “They want to keep us on our toes and watch out for new arguments that might require revising our views [and] the students really liked that solution.”
Indeed, a class poll conducted by Fraenkel found that students most engaged with Socrates and Mill’s philosophies.
“As a fallibilist you don’t get stuck in skepticism and paralysis, but you’re also not smug about always being right,” says Fraenkel. “You can be passionate about your beliefs and at the same time open to changing your mind. I think that’s a great attitude to adopt throughout life!”
A Place to Discover Critical Self-Examination
Students taking PHIL 202 were required to complete several assignments that had them responding to questions based on the course readings, participating in classroom discussions and writing papers that engaged critically with the readings.
It gave students the opportunity to engage with different and sometimes contrary philosophies and modes of thinking. How do you define happiness? What is success? How do we address these questions through the lens of metaphysics, ethics or epistemology?
“PHIL 202 doesn’t force any specific worldview on you; rather, it challenges your assumptions and puts the premises of your convictions into question,” says Theodore Shouse, a U2 major in Political Science, with a minor in Economics and Geography. “It forces you to refine your beliefs and realize your fallibility.”
For U2 student Zineb Maslouhy, the course helped her to discover the fluidity of the way she saw the world and helped her to question her loyalty to her moral and religious beliefs.
“Each week, Prof. Fraenkel would introduce us to new philosophers, new ways of thinking, and each week I'd leave class thinking I had found a new roadmap for my life,” says Zineb, who is pursuing an Honours degree in Political Science, with a double minor in World Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and History. “Then, in the following week, Prof. Fraenkel would counter those arguments with an array of new ideas, leaving the students to uphold, denounce, or merge their newfound ways of thinking.”
Fraenkel was initially a bit worried that a course titled ‘The Good Life’ would raise the wrong expectations among students.
“[I was worried] that students would come hoping to get philosophical self-help advice on how to live a happy life,” says Fraenkel. “Instead I gave them a bunch of radical and provocative ideas that, I hope, turned everything they assumed about happiness and success on its head.”
Fraenkel was happy when he realized that most of his students saw the point of the exercise and were up to the challenge of thinking about life and happiness in a radical new way.
“There were always students after class who told me how they were grappling with ideas we were studying, comparing them to rival ideas, and trying to apply them to questions of their own,” says Fraenkel. “Seeing that students got excited about the material was wonderful. I even got a couple of emails after the course in which students told me that they’d changed their major to philosophy.”
Video Clip by Lara Fraenkel