Instructor:
What will you do with yourself when you are done with college? If you’re like most people, you’ll spend an enormous proportion of your waking hours at work. When we think of how we might spend these hours, we rarely neglect to consider how much we might hope to make. But we do not always stop to ask just what our work might make of us. This latter question is the guiding topic of this course. We will read and discuss some of the most influential writings that have been penned over the last two centuries about modern forms of work and the cumulative effects they can have on our character, our values, and our relationships with our fellow human beings. Among the questions we will ask are: How much of our time and effort should we devote to paid work? What are the benefits and drawbacks of the kinds of work that you might do, and the work that others have to do that you might live your life? What sorts of power relationships obtain in the workplace, and are these relationships consistent with our equal freedom and dignity, or otherwise conducive to our flourishing? Have we, as a society, arrived at a skewed balance between work and leisure – one that enriches us in material terms while impoverishing us in other important respects? What would it take for work to be just and meaningful, and how might we bring it about that we ourselves and others are able to engage in such work?