PHIL 235 - I Long, Therefore I Am

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FA, alternate years. Descartes famously proclaimed, I think, therefore I am—Cogito Ergo Sum. And in so doing he provided a picture of human beings that has been hard to shake ever since. According to this picture rationality, cognition, reason—i.e., thinking—is at the center of human nature, the center of what it means to be human—we are uniquely, essentially, and most fundamentally thinking things.This course is a sustained reflection on an alternative to the Cartesian and Enlightenment view of what is at the center of human nature. On this alternative view, we human beings are first and foremost desiring, yearning, craving, longing, hungering beings. The alternative view has its roots in Saint Augustine who, in the 4th century, famously said, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Our hearts are restless.They’re agitated. They ache. They yearn. They long. It is this feature of human existence that we will explore in this course through film, fiction, and nonfiction. A previous philosophy course is recommended. Not offered in 2022-23.