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Oct 23, 2026
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HUM 1104 - Developing A Philosophy of Life
Credits: 2
Catalog Description
This course will focus on the prospect of living a meaningful life and how that life intersects with nature and society. It will do this primarily by bringing students to a greater awareness of their inner world and how it relates to and shapes the outerworld they will navigate through life. In particular, it will involve introspection on two important considerations in the development of a meaningful life: mindfulness and values. The former focuses attention on the lived experience in the social and natural world, while the latter explores what is desirable and worthwhile in life. Through selected readings, guided reflection, and experiential learning, students will develop greater mindfulness of their own lived experience in the world and identify the values that are significant to their understanding of a meaningful life.
Additional fee to student: No
Learner Outcomes
- Understanding through introspection how to improve one’s quality of life.
- Evaluating significant personal desires and motivations that inform major decisions about one’s life and how best to live it in conjunction with nature and society.
- Analyzing thoughts and feelings of a meaningful life-shaping experience as it happens amid others and our natural world.
- Creating a list of personal objectives for achieving a meaningful life in relation to self, others, and the natural world.
- Understanding personal strengths and weaknesses and how they impact the pursuit of a meaningful life in relation to others and the natural world.
Major Areas of Course Content
- An individual’s relation to nature:
- Direct engagement with a natural space
- Practice of submission to the governance of nature
- Concepts of beauty, simplicity, aliveness, and wholeness
- Exercise of practical wisdom
- An individual’s relation to others:
- Collaborating with others to complete mutual tasks
- Preservation of natural spaces, e.g. wilderness
- Respect for non-human animals
- An individual’s relation to him-/her-/themself
- Goals for a good life, including career aspirations
- Self-awareness
- in challenging circumstances
- in the act of accomplishment
- in a state of leisure
Credit for Prior Learning Options
No credit for prior learning option is available for this course.
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