We will spend six sessions doing a fairly close reading of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, one of the central philosophical works attempting to make sense of the question “what is a good life?” We will also take a look at some commentary on the attempt from a number of contemporary thinkers.

We are fortunate to have two “professional” philosophers from Dartmouth’s faculty joining us:
-Christine Thomas, for a session on Aristotle and Plato; and
-Timothy Rosenkoeeter, for a session on Aristotle and Kant

Aristotle posits a concept called “the good” and states that it is somehow the goal of human life. We will explore this and see if we can make any sense of what on its face seems a preposterous claim - that there is a single “good” for humans, and that, in some sense, that good could be attainable.

You don’t need any background in philosophy or Greek or anything else to participate, but you do need to be willing to read pretty closely and think along with Aristotle. There isn’t any “handy dandy” answer to be gleaned from this work, nothing you can put on a 3” x 5” card. Aristotle’s Ethics is among the most important Western efforts at addressing the question.