Lecture 26 - Concluding Lecture
Overview
In this concluding lecture, Professor Gendler charts four paths through the course. The first path traces how the course’s three main goals were realized: the goals of introducing students to the discipline of Philosophy though a number of central texts; of considering certain central questions raised by those philosophical texts in light of alternative approaches from related disciplines; and of considering more generally the how various disciplines might provide complementary perspectives on important questions. The second path traces how students’ understanding of the main course topics-–happiness and flourishing; morality; and political legitimacy and social structures--might have changed over the course of the semester. The third path traces the course’s main topics in light of three themes that unify the material-–the multi-part soul; luck and control; and the relation between the individual and society. And the fourth path looks at the course in light of three three central quotations, from Plato, Aristotle and Epictetus.