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

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