POLI4931 · Political Science
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
Honors Seminar: Thinking, Fighting, Ruling, Writing: Whats the Best Life? In considering the question of what the best life for a human being is, Aristotle suggests the political life and the contemplative life as the two serious contenders; others might suggest piety and poetry have claims of their own. In this course we will think about that question with the help of some very interesting individuals who have been both extraordinary political actors and serious thinkers and writers. Possible texts for the course might be Xenophon's Anabasis (with the movie The Warriors) and Memorabilia, Homer's Odyssey (with the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?), Churchill's My Early Life, T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom (with the movie Lawrence of Arabia), and 1 and 2 Samuel (with the Psalms).
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
4.3 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.6 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
4.6 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
4.4 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~5
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect only recovered evaluations connected to this course.
Across time
Section-level results available in the recovered archive.
Fall 2024
1 sectionFall 2022
1 section