Contemporary political scientists, philosophers, historians, and
sociologists rarely speak of happiness. In this course, we shall
examine the relation between politics and happiness in the works of
ancient, modern, and contemporary political philosophers,
philosophers, sociologists, and writers. We shall start by offering a
diagnosis of the democratic society in which we live today by
examining a combination of literary and sociological works (David
Brook’s novel Bobos in Paradise and Juliet Schor’s widely acclaimed
The Overworked American and The Overspent American). Next, we’ll
focus on the image of American life presented by Tocqueville in
Volume II of Democracy in America. Then, we shall explore the
multiple facets of the relation between politics, happiness, self,
and society in the works of Lao Tse (Tao Te King), Aristotle
(Nicomachean Ethics, Book One), Seneca (Epistles to Lucillius),
Marcus Aurelius (Meditations), Montaigne (Essays), Rousseau (Reveries
of a Solitary Walker), Emerson (selections from his Essays),
Robespierre and Dostoievsky (The Great Inquisitor), Simone Weil (The
Need for Roots), and Josef Pieper (Leisure the Basis of
Civilization). Finally, in an attempt to figure out what the future
might have in store for us, we’ll read a book that has become a true
best-seller in France, Michel Houllebecq’s The Elementary Particles,
that addresses the fundamental question of the relation between
science, religion, and the meaning of life.

The format of the class will be that of a Socratic seminar in which
we shall seriously engage with the main ideas of each author and test
their truth. Each student will be asked to lead one session (or part
thereof) and to provide a series of critical responses to other
students’ papers. All students will have to write a two-page outline
of each reading. There will also be a mid-term and final take-home
essay.