Philosophy: Nature of the Human Person and Society (Cycle B)
2024-2025
This course is part of the OLGC Extension Program which meets on THURSDAYS, not on Tuesdays.**
General Overview
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” That statement, attributed to the well-known philosopher - Socrates - at his trial, is considered the bedrock of any philosophical discourse. The human person is endowed with the unique ability to wonder and contemplate; has the distinct faculty to self-reflect and to self-critique; and has the unique ability to ask “why.” Unlike every other creature, therefore, the human person is able to examine his or her own life, grasp first principles, and apprehend the meaning of things.
Since each of us is shaped and formed by a particular culture and historical period, the first step in the pursuit of genuine learning, i.e. the quest for wisdom, is the unmasking of one’s own personally held opinions. Second, an honest quest for wisdom is to begin apprehending first principles and fundamental relationships. Otherwise, opinion battles opinion in futility, and the cultivation and practice of basic intellectual skills serve no rational purpose.
Through the tutorial experience, the students come to experience a truth identified by Aristotle in his first line of the Metaphysics: “All men desire to know.” Indeed, such is the nature of philosophy. Genuine philosophy is not an intellectual game, or some sort of mental gymnastics. It is a love of wisdom (philo + sophia), and the students come to see that learning is natural and therefore is directly related to living life well.
Philosophy: Nature of the Human Person and Society
Although still young in experience juniors and seniors in high school possess a human nature. They, therefore, have the capacity and faculties necessary to reflect, ponder and wonder. In some ways, children and youth are better suited toward it than adults since they tend to be more open, inquisitive and curious about life in general, and have fewer prejudices and pre-conceived ideas.
In this two year-cycle tutorial (Cycle A and Cycle B), the student learns to apprehend the first principles regarding:
- Ethical and social action and also social thought and the social order. Through the readings and discussions, the student will examine the two distinct orders: the classical world view and the modern world view
- Moral decision making
- The nature of personal responsibility
- The tension between the personal good and the common good
- The differences between “choice” and “free will”
- The nature of disordered human actions
- The modern American ideas of equality, individualism, and self-autonomy
In both cycles, the structure will remain the same while the authors read will vary. The Fall semester of each cycle will focus primarily on modern authors, who will present a modern understanding of the human person and the nature of society and its social order. The Spring semester will focus mostly on ancient authors, primarily Plato in one year and Aristotle in the other year. They will present to the student a classical understanding of the human person, the nature of society and its social order. The Spring semester will conclude with a modern author such as Dostoyevsky.
In Cycle A, the students will read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, excerpts from Sigmund Freud’s Future of an Illusion, excerpts from Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, excerpts Thomas Hobbes’ The Leviathan, selections from John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government, Sophocles’’ play Antigone, selections from Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Politics, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s dialogue Rebellion and the short story The Grand Inquisitor.
In Cycle B, the students will read Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning, excerpts from Antoine Saint Exupery’s Wind, Sand and Stars, Albert Camus’ The Stranger, excerpts from Alexis De Toqueville’s Democracy in America, selections from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers of Karamazov, the following Platonic dialogues: Apology, Crito, and excerpts from Republic and theLetter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
N.B. While the two-year cycle is an integrated one, and it would be most beneficial for a student to take both, it is not required. In addition, a student can begin either with Cycle A or Cycle B.
Evaluation
The two basic elements used to evaluate a student are preparation and participation. Based on the nature of the reading, the students will either read the text before attending the seminar or they will read it together in class. Regardless, the seminar will occur within a socratic format. After each seminar the students will be asked to write a one-to-two-page essay doubled spaced on a principle they learned and what challenged them during the seminar and why.
There will also be a mid-term project/presentation or essay and a final project/presentation or essay. Fifty percent of the student’s grade will be based on his or her presence and active, intelligent participation in the seminars. Active intelligent participation is the student who listens to his or her fellow peers and engages in a dialogue with them that includes asking questions and offering reflections based on what has been stated. The students are challenged to have a reasoned and lively discourse. The mid-term and final each also will be twenty-five percent of the overall assessment. There are no tests or quizzes.
> Philosophy: Nature of the Human Person and Society (Cycle A) will be offered in 2025-2026.
COURSE FEE: $390 pay-in-full / $426 payment plan
SUPPLY FEE: None
GRADE LEVEL: 11th & 12th
PREREQUISITES: Must be entering 11th or 12th grade
CREDIT HOURS: 1 credit philosophy
MIN/MAX: Min 3, Max 12
TEXTS*: See course description above
*Please do not purchase any texts or supplies until you receive the officially, updated book & supply list after registration.
**The OLGC Extension Program meets on Thursday mornings only, not on Tuesdays.