What is the Good Life?

 As you just learned, in the Humanities we ask questions about living a human life. There might be no bigger question than this: "What is a good life?" Our entire class is really about this question. 

Is a good life about being healthy? Does it have to do with wealth or status? What is it we really want out of life? 

Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, famously explored this question in a work entitled Nichomachean Ethics. Aristotle's answer (translated from Ancient Greek to English) is that the good life is about the following:

"Activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue."

Hmm...what does that mean? To get us started thinking about the good life and what Aristotle might have meant, I'd like you to do the assignment below.

Assignment: 5-Year Goals

What do you want your life to look like in five years? Take a moment and write down at least one specific, realistic, yet optimistic goal for each of the following dimensions of your life:

Financial/Career/Education

Romantic/Social Life

Family

Physical/Psychological Well-Being

Contribution to Your Local or Global Community.

For full credit, you must respond with at least one sentence ("In five years, I'd like .......") to each of the five dimensions listed above. That comes out to a 5-sentence-minimum total response. :-)

What is the Good Life?

As you just learned, in the Humanities we ask questions about living a human life. There might be no bigger question than this: "What is a good life?" Our entire class is really about this question. 

Is a good life about being healthy? Does it have to do with wealth or status? What is it we really want out of life? 

Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, famously explored this question in a work entitled Nichomachean Ethics. Aristotle's answer (translated from Ancient Greek to English) is that the good life is about the following:

"Activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue."

Hmm...what does that mean? To get us started thinking about the good life and what Aristotle might have meant, I'd like you to do the assignment below.

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Assignment: 5-Year Goals

What do you want your life to look like in five years? Take a moment and write down at least one specific, realistic, yet optimistic goal for each of the following dimensions of your life:

1. Financial/Career/Education
2. Romantic/Social Life
3. Family
4. Physical/Psychological Well-Being
5. Contribution to Your Local or Global Community.

For full credit, you must respond with at least one sentence ("In five years, I'd like .......") to each of the five dimensions listed above. That comes out to a 5-sentence-minimum total response. :-)

As you just learned, in the Humanities we ask questions about living a human life. There might be no bigger question than this: "What is a good life?" Our entire class is really about this question. 

Is a good life about being healthy? Does it have to do with wealth or status? What is it we really want out of life? 

Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, famously explored this question in a work entitled Nichomachean Ethics. Aristotle's answer (translated from Ancient Greek to English) is that the good life is about the following:

"Activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue."

Hmm...what does that mean? To get us started thinking about the good life and what Aristotle might have meant, I'd like you to do the assignment below.

Assignment: 5-Year Goals

What do you want your life to look like in five years? Take a moment and write down at least one specific, realistic, yet optimistic goal for each of the following dimensions of your life:

Financial/Career/Education

Romantic/Social Life

Family

Physical/Psychological Well-Being

Contribution to Your Local or Global Community.

For full credit, you must respond with at least one sentence ("In five years, I'd like .......") to each of the five dimensions listed above. That comes out to a 5-sentence-minimum total response. :-)

is the Good Life?

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As you just learned, in the Humanities we ask questions about living a human life. There might be no bigger question than this: "What is a good life?" Our entire class is really about this question. 

Is a good life about being healthy? Does it have to do with wealth or status? What is it we really want out of life? 

Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, famously explored this question in a work entitled Nichomachean Ethics. Aristotle's answer (translated from Ancient Greek to English) is that the good life is about the following:

"Activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue."

Hmm...what does that mean? To get us started thinking about the good life and what Aristotle might have meant, I'd like you to do the assignment below.

---

Assignment: 5-Year Goals

What do you want your life to look like in five years? Take a moment and write down at least one specific, realistic, yet optimistic goal for each of the following dimensions of your life:

1. Financial/Career/Education
2. Romantic/Social Life
3. Family
4. Physical/Psychological Well-Being
5. Contribution to Your Local or Global Community.

For full credit, you must respond with at least one sentence ("In five years, I'd like .......") to each of the five dimensions listed above. That comes out to a 5-sentence-minimum total response. :-)

What are the Humanities? An introduction to the Humanities

Where Are We Going?

During this first week of the term, you will learn how our course works (Orientation Module), get a sense for what we do in a Humanities course in creativity, and get a sense for how some people have described the human condition.

By the end of the week you will be able to answer the following questions:

What are the Humanities?

Who is Aristotle and what did he think about how to live a good life?

What does creativity have to do with living a good life?

What does the Garden of Eden story say about creativity & a good life?

What is the difference between values and virtues?

Who was Plato and how does he describe what it means to be human?

Let's get started by watching this week's overview video to answer that first, fundamental questions: What are the Humanities? Then, be sure to complete the Weekly Overview assignment at the end of this page.

Planning Ahead

Here's what's on your plate this week:

• A FlipGrid assignment that requires you to submit an initial post no later than Wednesday @ 11:59 PM and a reply to a classmate's post no later than Sunday @ 11:59 PM.
• Several reading assignments and lectures to complete ASAP, before our first in-class meeting.
• A quiz that needs to be completed no later than Wednesday @ 11:59 PM. 
• Attend our in-person class on Thursday in ADM 101 (12:30 PM - 2:45 PM).
• Complete your Week 1 Review by Sunday @ 11:59 PM.

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Assignment

What was the most interesting, inspiring, or intriguing thing you learned about the Humanities from the overview video above?

Enter your 3-sentence minimum response by clicking on the "submit" button.

What you will learn?

 Lecture of Professor G (Humanity Class)

course Overview

An introduction to the study of creativity in human life; its sources, development, social purpose, and role in culture change. Students analyze creativity as a central source of meaning and purpose in their lives as well as a development of their unique combination of human intelligences. Lives of creative people from all over the world are examined and contextualized. This course builds commitment to civic and moral responsibility for diverse, equitable, healthy and sustainable communities. Students engage themselves as members of larger social fabrics and develop the abilities and motivation to take informed action for change.

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Student Learning Outcomes

• Student Learning Outcome: Students synthesize their critical thinking, imaginative, cooperative, and empathetic abilities as whole persons in order to contextualize knowledge, interpret and communicate meaning, and cultivate their capacity for personal, as well as social change.
• Student Learning Outcome: Cultivate and demonstrate an awareness of the power of creativity and the potential of the creative process through direct involvement.

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Course Goals

1. Students will have been exposed to a broad, cross-disciplined approach to creativity by exploring this topic through the lens of neuroscience, psychology, business, art, spirituality, and by examining real-world examples of creative individuals.
2. Compared the difference between critical and creative thinking and examined how the two complementary cognitive faculties can be implemented for optimal living.
3. Through lecture, discussion, improvisational activities, games, and self-reflection, students will have further exercised their innate creative thinking skills and gained knowledge of psychological obstacles inherent within the creative process.
4. Students will have learned how the latest research into creativity advocates the need for a greater sense of play, a sense of humor, and provides greater reason to appreciate mythology, poetry, and religious practices.

By the end of the course students, will have developed a greater comprehension of the significance of creativity in maintaining a healthy society and in accessing a more meaningful life.

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Click "Next" to continue to the next page of this Orientation Module. -->