Unreflective hedonism, the single-minded though mindless pursuit of
pleasure, sometimes sounds like a not altogether disagreeable way of
life, yet great thinkers have often taken strong exception to the
very idea of this particular pursuit of happiness.  Socrates, one of
the greatest-earliest thinkers of the Western philosophical
tradition, sought wisdom instead of pleasure, and he insisted that
the unexamined life is not worth living.  Is it better, as John
Stuart Mill once remarked, to be Socrates dissatisfied than to be a
pig satisfied?  Philosophers are, by definition, lovers of wisdom;
but just what is this wisdom that they are so enamored of?

This course offers an especially personal introduction to some
notable past philosophers, by way of a thoughtful engagement with
their most personal writings -- their apologies, meditations, and
autobiographies.  An important benefit of approaching philosophy by
way of classic texts of this sort is that they prove to be
inexhaustible resources, endless material for thought.  This course
will emphasize some themes and topics threading from one text to
another.  The most unifying themes will concern the nature of
philosophizing, of philosophical method, and its relation to the
possibility of our own moral and cognitive perfectibility.  We will
explore what some great philosophical thinkers have tried to tell and
to show us about how good, how knowing -- in a word, how wise -- we
might become.  You will be expected not only to be an active,
intellectually engaged reader of the texts but also critically to
discuss (in oral and written form) their philosophical ideas and
arguments.