161-054 Human Life in Modern Thought

This is an intensive subject held over two weeks during Summer Semester. Timetabling will be such that this subject and 161-053 The Good Life in Ancient Thought can be taken concurrently. Strict enrolment deadlines apply to subjects taught during the Summer Semester. Any enrolment in, or withdrawal from, this subject for the Summer Semester must be made in line with HECS census dates, see HECS census date. To be offered in alternate years.

Any two university subjects or equivalent, or permission from the Head of Department or the subject coordinator.

The subject examines some influential 19th and 20th century conceptions of human life and human nature, including the revolutionary ideas of Nietzsche, Darwin, Marx, Sartre, Freud and Wittgenstein. Students are asked to engage with key questions arising in the writings of these thinkers, including the following: 1. Are human life and values determined by biological instinct, by social and economic forces, by personal psychological dynamics, or by free individual choices? 2. Does human morality require a religious foundation? 3. Do human minds differ radically from those of (other) animals? 4. Do such ideas concerning human nature have implications for the way we should conduct our lives?