Dozens of colleges use the phrase “the good life” in their catalogs and on their websites to pitch a wide variety of courses. Some purport to teach students about the meaning of life, while others use the phrase to entice students to learn about religion, health, or even the movies.
| LIVE YOUR LIFE BETTER | |||
| Course name | Institution | Type of course | From the course description |
| What Is a Good Life? | College of Charleston | Freshman seminar | “At some point, all of us ask the question, ‘How should I live my life?’ This question inevitably gives rise to another one—'What is a good life?’—which in turn leads to others: Is a good life focused on pleasure? Is it achieved mainly by pursuing one’s individual happiness, or is it achieved by helping others?” |
| What Is a Good Life? | Santa Fe College | Interdisciplinary humanities course for associate of art degree | Students in this class will consider the basic question, “What is the Good Life?’” and will be introduced to “a lifetime of reflection on the human condition.” |
| LEARN ABOUT LIFE, LITERALLY | |||
| Global Seminar: Health” | Antioch College | General-education, interdisciplinary, theme-based course | Before there can even be a discussion of the good life, there must be life itself, and that raises the question of health.” The course will provoke insights on “how the entire issue of health in the individual, society, and the world, is related to questions of justice, or the ‘good life.’” |
| TEST-DRIVE PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS | |||
| Happiness and the Good Life | George Mason U. | Introductory-level philosophy elective | “What’s the best way to make ourselves happy?” Students study philosophical traditions like hedonism, stoicism, utilitarianism, and positive psychology, and “try them out in their own lives.” |
| The Good Life: Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems | Villanova U. | Core course in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | This course asks students to examine the ways in which the Christian and secular traditions impact the understanding and pursuit of the good life.” |
| The Good Life | Eastern U. | Part of the required “Ethics and Public Thought” curriculum of Templeton Honors College | The question of the Good Life is one of the foundational and most permanent human questions—to be asked by all of us. ... This is a course in Christian ethics and character formation.” |
| AS SEEN ON STAGE AND SCREEN | |||
| Cinematic Visions: Movies & the Meaning of Life | Knox College | Freshman interdisciplinary liberal-arts course | What does it mean to be human? Who are we, and how do we know? What do we want out of life, and how should we go about getting it? What are our responsibilities to others? What does it mean to live ‘the good life’? We consider the ways in which film addresses these questions.” |
| Choosing the Good Life | Roanoke College | Freshman seminar that meets the “Living an Examined Life” requirement in the college’s “Intellectual Inquiry” curriculum | “Students in this course will examine choices made by playwrights and by the characters in their dramas and will then reflect on those choices and their consequences and the relevance of both to their own lives.” |
| AS A WESTERN CONSTRUCT | |||
| A Good Life | U. of North Carolina at Charlotte | Honors course in Western history and culture | “This course will examine the ways in which a ‘good life’ has been defined and proscribed in the West. ... The ‘examined life’ of each participant is the real focus of the course.” |
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