TRCS05  PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: ARISTOTLE AND AUGUSTINE ON HAPPINESS, SUFFERING AND FRIENDSHIP (A.Y. 2023/2024)

• Accademic Unit

  Faculty of Theology

• Course

  .

Objectives: The student will become acquainted with philosophical anthropology (the philosophy of human nature) by exploring, with the help of Aristotle and St. Augustine, three basic questions every human being has in their lives: (1) What is happiness and how can I live happily? (2) What is suffering, or, why am I not happy? and (3) What is friendship and how is friendship important in my living happily? The student explore these three questions by reading what Aristotle has to say about then in his Nicomachean Ethics and what St. Augustine learned as he describes this in his Confessions. After reading and discussing in class what these two thinkers share on happiness, suffering, and friendship the student will consider his or her own life and come up with what he or she considers happiness, suffering, and friendship to be in his or her life.

Contents: We will study and discuss in class portions of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (I-III, V-VI, VIII-IX, X) to learn what Aristotle considers happiness, suffering, and friendship and then we will read and discuss what St. Augustine learns from his experience about happiness, suffering, and friendship as he relates this in his Confessions (I-X). Then the student will be expected to take a final exam on the material studied and write a reflection paper on what he or she considers happiness, suffering, and friendship in dialogue with what Aristotle and St. Augustine have come up with.

Means of evaluation: The student will be evaluated on his or her attendance and participation in class (25%), performance in the final exam (25%), and the quality of the final reflection paper (50%).

• Information
• Teachers
• Lesson schedule/Room
• Bibliography

Information

• Semestre: 1° Semestre
• ECTS: 6

Teachers

Thomas Paul SHERMAN

Lesson schedule/Room

Semester	Day	From	To	Room	Floor	Building	Notes
1° Semestre	Martedì	8.30	9.15	F104	1	Frascara
1° Semestre	Martedì	9.30	10.15	F104	1	Frascara
1° Semestre	Giovedì	8.30	9.15	F104	1	Frascara
1° Semestre	Giovedì	9.30	10.15	F104	1	Frascara

Bibliography

• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Oxford Word Classics (2009), translation by David Ross, revised with an introduction by Lesley Brown; St. Augustine, Confessions, Oxford World Classics (1998), translation by Henry Chadwick.