The Meaning of Life: Perspectives From the World's Great Intellectual Traditions

Establishing the solid ground from which one's journey will begin; learning the meanings that the word "meaning" itself may embody; previewing the approaches one will take to the question that gives the course its name.

One of the core texts of the Mahabharata, a major moral and religious text, introduces the critically important skill of reading a text deeply and with comprehension; beginning one's consideration of the concept of human choice.

Plunging into the Bhagavad Gita's wisdom; grasping the three kinds of yogas, or disciplines, embedded in its metaphors; why these disciplines of action, knowledge and devotion are all required if life is to be coherent, integrated and rational.

An appreciation of the theophany; Krishna's revelation of the nature of divinity; according to the Gita's final message, true freedom comes from disinterested action, reflective knowledge, and a finding of value at the cosmic level of the universe.

The roots of Western thought about life's meaning; beginning the study of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics; examining the framework of Aristotle's view, as set forth in the lecture notes kept by his son and pupil, Nichomacheus.

Aristotle's search for the highest good; it is a search that takes one through his function argument; an explanation of the comprehensive state of being known as eudaimonea, the fully flourishing life that may elude evaluation until long after death.