Seminar Materials
Philosophy 381—Happiness &
Meaning
Michael Taber
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA
Fall 2024
1.
The first book we’ll use is Lorraine Besser’s The Philosophy of Happiness: An Interdisciplinary
Introduction, and we’ll use this until the end of September. You will rent
and access it through Perusall; create an account at their site, and then use the course
code TABER-LGDKG to open the readings for
this seminar. The direct link is:
https://app.perusall.com/join/taber-lgdkg
This is the COURSE code, for getting registered
for the Perusall page for this course. Once you’re
registered, Perusall will ask you to pay money to rent
the book or to enter an ACCESS code, for getting access to the readings. There
is no ACCESS code for this course. Students can access the readings only
by paying Perusall to rent the book. (That's the deal
that the publishers make with Perusall. An
"access code" for getting the readings is used only when there's no
copyrighted material that an instructor is using for a course.)
So use the
course's "course code" to get yourself in at Perusall.
Then pony up the greenbacks to rent the book.
The remaining books will be available in the Campus Store for purchase or
rent, or you can get them on your own:
2.
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, translated by Constance Garnett (2009,
Hackett Publishing), ISBN: 978-0872209053
3.
E. D. Klemke and Steven Cahn’s The Meaning of Life: A Reader, 4th
ed. (2017, Oxford University Press), ISBN: 978-0190674199
4.
Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus and Other
Essays (1991, Vintage Books), ISBN:
978-0679733737
5.
Albert Camus’ The Stranger (1989, Vintage Books), ISBN: 978-0679720201
6.
Nick Riggle’s This Beauty: A Philosophy of
Being Alive (2022, Basic Books), ISBN: 978-1541675506
Third, some materials (mostly short readings) are
linked to the
Google folder for this seminar, or to external sites.
Fourth, a few readings are linked to New York Times
articles, to which—though you may not realize it—you already have a
subscription; our library has
worked out a deal with the NYT whereby all SMCM students, faculty, and
staff can activate a subscription at no additional charge. (Beyond your
tuition, that is!)
Send me mail: mstaber at smcm dot edu
Go to the home page for this course.
Go to Michael Taber's home page.
Go to the SMCM home page.