Key facts

Type	Day and Weekend
Location	Iver
Address	Evreham Adult Learning Centre Swallow Street Iver Bucks SLO 0HS
Dates	Sat 20 Oct 2012
Subject area(s)	Philosophy
Fees	From £55.00
Application status	Course cancelled
Course code	E12P154PHJ
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email studentenquiries@buckscc.gov.uk or telephone 0845 0454040.

Overview

What is the Relationship Between Doing What is Right and Doing What Makes you Happy? We all wish to be happy. Yet how happy one is depends both upon what one does and upon the sort of person that one is. The person who is high minded and strives to do what is right may be more happy than the selfish person who strives to gratify his desires. Yet how can one find out whether this is really the case? And what should drive one’s decisions regarding whether to modify one’s character and how one acts (especially, how one treats others) – the desire to be happy or the recognition that one should do what is right? We will examine the philosophical underpinnings of these fundamental quesitons, and employ the resultant insights to help us improve how we live our day to day lives. No prior knowledge of philosophy is required, but you must be willing to think rationally and question your preconceptions.

Programme details

To be held at: Evreham Adult Learning Centre, Swallow Street, Iver, Bucks SLO 0HS
SATURDAY 20 OCTOBER 2012
9.45am Registration
10.00am Introduction to philosophical reasoning What makes you most happy depends on what sort of person you are. Perhaps if you were to change you could be more happy. Yet how are you to decide whether, and in what way, to modify yourself?
11.00am Coffee/tea (from drinks machine – please bring change with you)
11.10pm What is the right way to act? With particular focus on who is worthy of absolute respect, and whether it is right to benefit yourself at another’s expense.
12.20pm Lunch (Please bring you own packed lunch, as there is nothing available on site)
1.20pm A discussion of the distinction between higher and lower pleasures, and higher and lower motivations. What role do higher pleasures, high mindedness, virtue, love, the aesthetic sense and creativity play in making you happy and in doing what is right?
2.35pm Tea/coffee (from drinks machine – please bring change with you)
2.45pm What is the relationship between doing what is right and doing what makes you happy?
4.00pm Course disperses
No lunch is provided, so please bring your own packed lunch with you. Hot drinks are available from machines at break times, so if you wish to have one, please make sure you have some change with you. Cold water machines are available to use free of charge.
Facilities available at Evreham Adult Learning Centre Disabled access, Wheel chair access, Disabled toilet, Chair lift, Hearing loop, Adaptive technology in room Free parking on site, or near by Disabled parking

Staff

Recommended reading

Background Reading

Fred Feldman, Pleasure and the good life (Clarendon Press 2006)
T.H.Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, Edited by David Brink (Brink’s introductory essay is worth reading too). OUP
I.Kant, Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals (any translation of the last century)
Roger Scruton, Beauty (OUP 2009)

Browse relevant topics on:

The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/

The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/

Fee options

Programme Fee

Tuition only: £55.00

Apply for this course