Michael L. Satlow

Then and Now

Teaching

AI and the Classroom

by

Conversations about AI in the classroom have been raging this year.  Among teachers, it has mainly been a conversation tinged with fear: how do I keep my students from using it to cheat?  How do I detect it?  Should I even bother to assign essays and take-home exams?

These are all valid concerns that get to the heart of the goals and methods of traditional teaching.  If our goal is to help students improve their writing, student use of AI to write papers will clearly frustrate it.  If we want to teach students to think critically and learn to make coherent and compelling arguments, is the essay the best or only way to do it?  Dealing with AI requires rethinking what professors do in the classroom, and that is hard work.

But the horse is out of the barn now and just as the spread of the calculator changed education in mathematics, so too AI will most likely grow to transform how and what we write.  How, exactly, I don’t know but fear and avoidance do not seem to me to be successful ways of confronting this challenge.

So, inspired by a talk I recently heard by my colleague Steven Lubar, I decided to plunge into the world of AI and pedagogy by designing an assignment for my students.  I’ve worked through these steps myself and have been fascinated by the results. I’ll probably have more to say after my students complete the assignment, but in the meantime I thought I would share it, should it be helpful to others.

AI and Writing

This assignment helps you to explore how you might profitably, and not profitably, use AI to improve your writing.

The writing style of most AI tools is serviceable but flat and I don’t recommend it for the actual writing of most papers.  In this exercise, I want you to think about AI as a friend or teacher, helping you to develop your thoughts and then edit your paper.  In brief, you’re going to have a conversation with an AI tool and then write about it.  Here are the steps:

  1. Choose an AI tool, sign up for it, and familiarize yourself with how it works.  ChatGPT is probably the best known of these tools, but there are others (e.g., Microsoft Copilot).
  2. Choose a relatively compact primary text that we have discussed in the last two classes.  [These are about 20 pages each, all ancient texts.]  Read this text carefully and write a 500 word summary of it.
  3. Copy and paste the entire text into your AI tool, and ask it to “analyze” or “summarize” the text in 500 words.  You can experiment with both the command and the word-count.  Ask it to write for different audiences (e.g., a high schooler; college student; professor).  Compare these results with what you wrote.  Jot down your observations so you remember them in order to incorporate them in your paper.
  4. Engage in a continuing conversation with AI about one of the points it made.  This conversation should go for about 8-10 questions, building on each reply.  You might want to ask it to be more specific about one point that it made; identify its sources; critique it and ask for a response; compare it to something outside of the text (e.g., how does this view compare to the view of the following text?).  In my experience AI tends to drift away from the conversation and bring in more general knowledge.  Don’t let it do this!  Bring the conversation back to the specific text and topic.
  5. Repeat this chain of 8-10 exchanges for another point on the same text.
  6. Never take facts that AI gives you at face value (it makes things up).  Try to double-check them.
  7. Now write your paper on your experience using AI to interpret your text.  Your paper should be about 1000 words (ultimately in or converted to doc or docx format).  Was AI helpful, and in what specific ways?  Where did it fail?  Your paper should also demonstrate deep engagement with the actual text you used.  What was your takeaway from this experience?
  8. Paste your paper into the AI tool and ask it for editing advice.  Again, experiment.  Are passages or ideas unclear?  Do you have syntactical or grammatical mistakes?  Is your writing likely to excite a reader (and if so, which kind)?  Does it adhere to the style suggestions of Strunk and White?
  9. Using that information, revise your paper and submit.

Bring your laptops to class.  We’ll spend the first part of the class reading and commenting on each other’s papers privately, and then have a group discussion.

Coda

I asked ChatGPT whether it thought the assignment would be pedagogically effective.  Its response:

This assignment seems to be designed with pedagogical effectiveness in mind, as it combines several elements that could enhance students’ understanding of both the text and the capabilities and limitations of AI tools in aiding writing and analysis. Here’s an assessment of its effectiveness:

  1. Critical Thinking and Engagement: By asking students to read a primary text carefully and write a summary before engaging with AI, the assignment encourages critical engagement with the material. Students are prompted to think deeply about the text’s content and structure, which is crucial for academic writing.
  2. Hands-On Experience with AI Tools: Students get practical experience using AI tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. This hands-on experience can demystify AI technology and help students understand its potential applications and limitations.
  3. Comparative Analysis: By comparing their own summaries with those generated by AI, students can gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of AI-generated content. This encourages critical thinking about the quality and reliability of AI-generated text compared to human-generated text.
  4. Conversation with AI: Engaging in a continuing conversation with AI about specific points in the text fosters deeper engagement and critical thinking. It encourages students to challenge AI-generated content, question sources, and compare viewpoints, which are essential skills for academic writing and research.
  5. Reflective Paper Writing: The final reflective paper prompts students to articulate their experiences and insights gained from using AI tools. This encourages metacognition and reflection on the benefits and limitations of AI in the context of writing and textual analysis.
  6. Peer Review and Group Discussion: Peer review and group discussion provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on their writing and engage in collaborative learning. This fosters a supportive learning environment and encourages students to critically evaluate and learn from each other’s work.

Overall, this assignment appears to be well-designed to promote critical thinking, engagement with course material, practical skills in using AI tools, and reflective writing. However, it’s essential to ensure that students have access to the necessary resources and support to effectively carry out each step of the assignment. Additionally, providing guidance on how to critically evaluate AI-generated content and navigate ethical considerations related to AI use would further enhance the assignment’s effectiveness.

Adam and Eve in the Jewish Tradition

by

I have typically taught adult education courses, particularly in Jewish settings.  Since I do not enjoy teaching on Zoom, I have largely avoided doing so over the last few years.  This semester, though, I am beginning a new one, a ten-class course on “Adam and Eve in the Jewish Tradition.”  I wanted it to be fully in person but, alas, we ended up compromising on a hybrid format.  In any case, my syllabus is here:

 

Adam and Eve in the Jewish Tradition 

Spring, 2023

 

As the first human beings, Adam and Eve became for later Jews and Christians a rich source of reflection about the nature of humanity. Yet the biblical story of Adam and Eve is full of ambiguities. Do the first chapters of Genesis describe one creation, or two? Why did God create the first couple? Why would — or better, how could — creatures created “in the image of God” sin? What does the story teach us about human sexuality? This course will focus on how Jews, as well as the Christians with whom they were in dialogue, have interpreted this story and offered answers to these and other pressing questions.

 

Learning Objectives

By the end of this class, you should:

  1. Know the story of Adam and Eve better than you ever thought possible and, more seriously, see the many different ways it was understood in antiquity;
  2. Have a basic understanding of the wide range of literature produced by Jews in antiquity;
  3. Know the different interpretative techniques used by Jews and Christians in antiquity;
  4. Understand the role that the story of Adam and Eve played in the construction of gender roles among both Jews and Christians;
  5. Have more resources for thinking about some of the crucial issues raised in this short story, such as love and family.

Instructor

Professor Michael Satlow, Religious Studies and Judaic Studies, Brown University.  My research specialization is in Jews and Judaism in antiquity, although I teach a wide range of classes.  I have a blog at mlsatlow.com and I tweet @mlsatlow, and am the author of How the Bible Became Holy.

I can be reached at msatlow@gmail.com and try to respond to emails within 2 business days.  I am always interested in your feedback.

Hybrid Format

You may all have had more experience learning in a Zoom environment than I have!  I largely avoided Zoom and hybrid teaching, in large measure because I find the in-person learning experience to be much more productive and exciting.  That said, I do realize that these are complex times, and that the use of video learning environments opens access to many.

We will thus be holding this course in hybrid format, which is something I have never done.  So I beg your indulgence in advance as I figure out how best to manage a class like this.  We will go over the technical details during our first class, although I have little doubt that we will have to make adjustments in the course of the semester.

 

Resources

We will be reading one book in its entirety, Bruce Feiler, The First Love Story: A Journey through the Tangled Lives of Adam and Eve.  I would characterize this book as a meditation on the story of Adam and Eve through the lens its later interpreters, Jewish and Christian, religious and secular.  I think that it will help you to see this story in a new way that might be particularly relevant.

Other readings will be posted in our shared Google Drive Folder at least a week in advance.  You should print these out and bring them to class.  It may also be helpful for you to always have a Bible handy.  Since we’ll be referencing some New Testament texts, I would recommend Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (ISBN: 978-1585160303), but really any version would work (including only a Tanakh).

 

Expectations

It is a pleasure for me to teach adults, who have actual, fully-developed social skills.  While you all know these things, just a few reminders:

  1. You are all adults with big, messy lives. I have tried to keep the readings manageable, but even so, I realize that not all of you will be able to prepare for every class, and that’s fine.  Moreover, some of these readings, particularly of ancient primary texts, are complicated and difficult to understand.  Do what you can; don’t work to the point of frustration.  We will often go over these texts slowly and in detail in class.
  2. I like to run a lively class that gives you space to discuss, disagree, and develop ideas. I will typically begin class with an open-ended question about the readings, just to get an idea of what you, as a class, found interesting, confusing, etc.  You should be prepared each class to say something about the readings, but since I like to hear from everyone, be concise!
  3. Sometimes I might break you up into smaller groups to discuss a text or issue, or work on a project. As we gel as a class, I will have a better sense of how to handle this.
  4. I anticipate spending some time each class lecturing, but it will not be for the majority of the class. As I speak, I welcome questions that ask for clarification.  Most comments and responses, though, should wait until I finish.
  5. Please silence your phone during class or, even better, turn it off if you can. If you are on Zoom, please stay muted unless called upon to speak.  We will figure out together how to use the Zoom chat to effectively further our discussionsyou’re your participation.
  6. We will have ample time for discussion. Your participation is important!  I only ask that you are respectful of the opinions of others and of the time.  We are all responsible for everybody’s learning, so let’s make sure that everybody has an opportunity to contribute.
  7. We will usually have a 10-15 minute break in the middle of the class.
  8. Have fun!

Tentative Schedule

 

January 19 Introduction

Course introduction, and a preliminary reading of the Adam and Eve story.  Please bring a copy of the Bible to class, and if you have time, reread Genesis 1-5 in advance.

 

You might also read the introduction (pp. 3-16) of The First Love Story.

 
January 26 The Bible

This class is a deeper dive into the story in order to better understand its complexities.  Read:

1.      Genesis 1-5 (again!);

2.      The First Love Story, chapter 1 (pp. 19-44);

3.      Ziony Zevit, What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden?, pp. 239-242

4.      Optional:  For an overview, Prof. Shawna Dolansky, “The Immortal Myth of Adam and Eve,” at: https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-immortal-myth-of-adam-and-eve.

 
February 2 The Earliest Interpretations

Adam and Eve are barely mentioned, if at all, in the Tanakh outside of Genesis 1-5.  They do, however, appear in Jewish literature produced during the Second Temple period (520 BCE – 70 CE).  Today we look at two specific examples, one from the book of Jubilees and the other from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I’ll give more information about these texts in class.

 

Reading:

1.      The First Love Story, chapter 2, pp. 47-72

2.      Jubilees 1-4

3.      Damascus Document IV-V

4.      Optional: Nir, “Did Adam and Eve have Sex before Entering the Garden of Eden?  Rethinking Jubilees 6:6-12,” Henoch 36 (2014): 50-63

 
February 9 Life of Adam and Eve

Another Jewish text from the Second Temple period is more directly concerned with Adam and Eve (actually, there are several such texts but we will focus only on one), today called The Life of Adam and Eve.

 

Reading:

1.      The First Love Story, chapter 3, pp. 75-100

2.      The Life of Adam and Eve

 
February 16 Philo

Philo was a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, around 20 BCE – 50 CE.  He has a very different understanding of the story of Adam and Eve.  This is not particularly easy reading, so don’t worry if you get stuck – we’ll go over it in class!

 

Reading:

1.      The First Love Story, chapter 4, pp. 103-125

2.      Philo, Allegorical Interpretation II

 
February 23 New Testament

Adam and Eve play an important role in the New Testament which was, after all, written largely by and for Jews.  Today we survey those passages.

 

Reading:

1.      The First Love Story, chapter 5, pp. 129-151

2.      Matthew 5:32, 19:3-9

3.      Mark 10

4.      Luke 16:18

5.      Romans 5

6.      1 Corinthians 7:10-15

7.      1 Timothy 2

8.      Optional: Goulder, “Exegesis of Genesis 1-3 in the New Testament”

 
March 2 Art

Whew – that was a lot of complicated reading.  And there is more to come.  So let’s take a break today and do something completely different.

 

Prior to class, find an artwork – from any artist, any time, and any place – that has to do with Adam and Eve.  Send it to me by, say, Tuesday night and I’ll add them all to the Drive.  Think about how your artist interprets what part of the story.  Bring a printed copy of your artwork to class as well.  We’ll discuss these in class.

 
March 9 The Rabbis

Rabbinic literature is foundational to all forms of modern Judaism.  The story of Adam and Eve offered a challenge for the rabbis: it is explicitly not a story about Jews.  As such, they had surprisingly little to say about the story.  We’ll look at selected passages, though, in early rabbinic literature (e.g., Midrash and Talmud)

 

Readings:

1.      The First Love Story, chapters 6-7, pages 155-205

2.      Selections of rabbinic literature (you don’t really need to read these in advance; we’ll go over them in class

3.      Optional:  D. Boyarin, Carnal Israel, chapter 1z

 
March 16 The Alphabet of Ben Sira

The Jewish interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve took a very strange turn in the early Middle Ages.  Today we look at a Jewish text and its important legacy.

 

Reading:

1.      The First Love Story, chapter 8, pages 209-235

2.      The Alphabet of Ben Sira

 
March 23 The Zohar

There is nothing I would prefer to do today than sit back and spend the entire class synthesizing what we have done, processing, and thinking deeply about Feiler’s book.  We will do some of this today, but there is work yet to do!  Adam and Eve play an important role in the Zohar, Judaism’s preeminent mystical text.  We’ll spend some time surveying with the Zohar has to say.

 

Reading:

1.       The First Love Story, conclusion, 239-269

2.      Selections from the Zohar

 

Happiness and Pursuit of the Good Life

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As the new semester approaches, I have “finalized” (at least in tentative form) my syllabus for my course on “Happiness and Pursuit of the Good Life”.  I previously blogged about this course here, and I thank all who responded to my questions.  The syllabus is below, and also available in pdf.  Note that I do not give the fully bibliographic information for many of the readings, but they should be easy enough to look up (although without good library access, perhaps not so easy to acquire).

 

 

 

 

 

Happiness and the Pursuit of the Good Life

Brown University: RELS 0010

Spring, 2023

 

What is happiness, and how does it relate to the “good life,” or a life well-lived? This is an age-old question, and in this course we will investigate religious and philosophical answers alongside insights drawn from modern positive psychology. A major goal of the course is to give you intellectual tools that will help you to construct a meaningful life. Areas of study will include value determination; gratitude; status and wealth; and mindfulness.

The course has three major parts:

In the first part, we consider issues of definition: What is “happiness,” “flourishing,” and “the good life”?  This is a higher-level exploration of the basic problem of how we might live our lives and find meaning (if meaning is to be found) in the world and our role within it.

The second part focuses on the human.  Who are we?  In these classes we focus more on a range of psychological issues.  We are “wired” in ways that often get in the way of our ability to be happy.  Following the metaphor used by some of the writers that we will be reading, we will refer to this as our “elephant,” the great and complex mass of biological, psychological, and barely-changeable components that drive us.

Finally, we focus on the “rider” of the elephant, those things that we can control to deliberately move our elephants so that we can live the kind of life that we desire.  This section is more oriented toward specific techniques and exercises that help us to better train our elephants.

Course Goals

By the end of this course, you should:

  1. Have acquired a range of approaches that religious thinkers and philosophers through the ages have grappled with the question of life’s purpose, and how to live in accordance with it;
  2. Have acquired a basic knowledge of the tenets of positive psychology, in both its applied and scientific aspects;
  3. Have the ability to develop your own connections and applications between these two domains of knowledge;
  4. Have a much richer intellectual toolbox for increasing your own happiness and sense of emotional and psychological well-being

Instructors

Professor Michael Satlow, Religious Studies and Judaic Studies.

 

Resources

You should buy a blank journal and bring it to every class.  Most classes you will be asked to make an entry; sometimes more than once.  You should also use this journal to reflect on your own.  We will occasionally make journal checks, but if there are parts of the journal that you prefer to keep private we can figure out a way to accommodate that.

While much of what we read will be available online through our Reserve system, there are a few books that we’ll be reading in their entirety (or close to it).  If you should thus consider making the following purchases:

  1. Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (Basic Books, 2006; 978-0465028023)
  2. Martin Seligman, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being (Atria, 2012; 978-1439190760)
  3. Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Beacon, rpt 2006; 978-0807014271)
  4. Terese of Avila, Interior Castle (Dover; 978-0486461458)

 

Requirements and Evaluation

  1. Attendance in lecture, prepared with journals (10%);
  2. Attendance and participation in section (10%);
  3. First written assignment, due February 25. This will take the form of writing (1) a letter to your future self; and (2) a paper, to the course instructors, unpacking what you have written and justifying it in the readings.  Each will be about 3 pages (20%);
  4. Second written assignment, due March 24. This will be a 4-5 page paper about your “elephant.”  What are your strengths and weaknesses? (20%);
  5. Third written assignment, due May 7. A 1500 word final essay in which you engage a single religious text; put it into dialogue with positive psychology (as we have done throughout the semester); and reflect on how you might use its insights productively in your own life (30%);
  6. A final, reflective, paper of about 500 words (10%).

As you will see in this course, overly focusing on grades will make you less happy, impede your actual learning, and simply undermine your quest for a better and more purposeful life.

 

Section

Every other week, you will have an hour-long Section meeting with a TA.  You may have a light assignment or reading to prepare for your section meeting (e.g., a video), but mainly they are an opportunity to continue discussion of class material in smaller groups.  Attendance at, and participation in, these Sections is mandatory.

On the alternative weeks, Professor Satlow will hold an optional group meeting, also for an hour.  The structure will be similar to a section, where you have a chance to pose questions and develop ideas in greater depth.  You may attend any, all, or none of these, but if you do attend please arrive on time and stay through the entire session.

More details about the timing of these meetings will be forthcoming after Shopping Period.

 

Additional Policies

  1. Class will actually begin at 2:35, giving you an extra 5 minutes to get to class and get settled. We will begin at 2:35 sharp, and no latecomers will be admitted for the first 15 minutes of class, at which time we will work on some focus exercises (including journaling).  When those exercises are completed, latecomers can enter and sign in.  For purposes of maintaining eligibility in the alternative grading plan, coming late is equivalent to an absence.
  2. Research shows that the use of electronic devices in class impairs learning. Accordingly, unless you specifically receive an exemption, the use of all such devices is prohibited, except when expressly allowed (e.g., if we do a poll on Kahoot I might have you use your phone).  If you feel that this policy presents a major impediment to your learning, please come and see Professor Satlow at the beginning of the semester.
  3. Because you will access most of your readings online but will not have access to them online during class, you will want to print them out and bring them to class and section. Note that there is a Brown University program to assist eligible students for paying for this.  More details are available here.
  4. It is a bit hard in a course like this to know what cheating would look like, but if you have any question or suspicions about an act, don’t do it. This includes use of ChatGPT and other AI tools.  Cheating is not just bad generally, but flies in the face of everything that this course is about.  Any case of cheating or violation of course policies will result in an automatic NC for the course and possibly referral to the Dean.
  5. I believe strongly that this should be a space accessible to all. We seek to cultivate an atmosphere that is fully inclusive and open to all kinds of diverse viewpoints; it should be both safe and challenging.  If anything, at any time, is hindering your learning, please let us know immediately and we will seek to make whatever adjustments are required.

 

Wellness

One of the most important components for happiness is health, both physical and mental.  I expect that by signing up for this class you are committing to take care of yourself: eat (and drink) healthily; get enough sleep; and exercise.  If in order to do so you need to change the way that you are living, be reflective (in your journal) about the process and results.

If you are sick, take care of yourself and do not come to class (but do let us know through an email to your TA).  Documented absences for health reasons will not have an impact on your grade.

 

Tentative Schedule

Note that this schedule may, and probably will, be adjusted as the semester progresses.  Please consult our Canvas site for the most up-to-date information.  When there is a conflict between the syllabus and Canvas, Canvas takes precedence.

January 26

 

 Introduction
January 31

 

 What is Happiness? (1)

Reading:

Seligman, Flourish, Chapter 1

Deresiewicz, “Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League”

L. Davis, “The Ivy League, Mental Illness, and the Meaning of Life”

 
February 2

 

 What is Happiness? (2)

Reading:

Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Books 1, 7, and 10

 
February 7

 

 Flourishing

Reading:

R. Harris, The Happiness Trap, pp. 1-18

Besser and Oishi, “The Psychologically Rich Life”

 
February 9

 

 The Purposeful Life

Reading:

Excerpts of Aquinas, Summa (Read the biographical introduction in the packet and pp. 19-32

M. Joshanloo, “A Comparison of Western and Islamic Conceptions of Happiness”

 

First Section Meeting

View: Randy Pausch, “The Last Lecture”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

 
February 14

 

 A Life of Purpose

Reading:

Ecclesiastes (biblical book)

Victor Frankl, Man’s Search Meaning

 
February 16

 

 Happiness and Purpose

TBD

 

Optional Group Meeting

 
February 23

 

 The Self: A Psychological Overview

Reading:

Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, pp. 1-44

Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh, part 1

 
February 28

 

 The Primal Self

Reading:

Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, pp. 45-80

D. Ariely and G. Loewenstein, “The Heat of the Moment: The Effect of Sexual Arousal on Sexual Decision Making,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 19 (2006): 87-98

D. Kahneman, Nobel Lecture

 
March 2

 

 The Religious Self

Reading:

Genesis, 1-4

M. Satlow, “Talmud Torah and Rabbinic Asceticism”

P. Brown, The Body and Society, Chapter 19

 

Second Section Meeting

For Section: Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness | TED Talk

 
March 7

 

 Elephantal Differences

Reading:

Seligman, Flourish, Chapter 3

Nes and Roysamb, “Happiness in Behavior Genetics”

 
March 9

 

 Religion and Gender

Reading:

A. Fausto-Sterling, “On the Critiques of the Concept of Sex”

S. Guimond, “Psychological Similarities and Differences between Women and Men across Cultures”

J. Dahlvig and K Longman, “Influences of an Evangelical Christian Worldview on Women’s Leadership Development”

 

Optional Group Meeting

 
March 14

 

 Money

Reading:

Seligman, Flourish, chapter 10

Catapano, et al., “Financial Resources Impact the Relationship between Meaning and Happiness”

 
March 16

 

 Money

Reading:

Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, “Gifts to the Poor,” chapter 10

The Zakat Handbook

 

Third Section Meeting

Watch video on “aliefs”: https://www.wi-phi.com/videos/cognitive-biases-alief/

 
March 21

 

 The Rider

Reading:

Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, pp. 81-106

R. Thaler and C. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, pp. 1-104

 
March 23

 

 Meditation

Reading:

S. Young, “How Meditation Works”

A. Newberg and G. d’Aquilio, “The Neuropsychology of Religious and Spiritual Experience”

 

Optional Group Meeting

 
April 4

 

 Love and Community

Reading:

Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, pp. 107-134

Dorff, “Loneliness, Family, and Community During the Pandemic”

A. Piwko, “Islam and the COVID-19 Pandemic”

 
April 6

 

 Canceled

 
April 11

 

 Values

Reading:

Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, pp. 135-79

Harris, The Happiness Trap, pp. 167-79

 
April 13

 

 Developing the Virtues

Reading:

Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh, Second part

 

Fourth Section Meeting

Assignment TBD

 
April 18

 

 Gratitude

Reading:

Wood, et al., “Gratitude and Well-Being: A Review and Theoretical Integration”

Take the Gratitude Survey, available at: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter

 
April 20

 

 Gratitude

Reading:

S. Schimmel, “Gratitude in Judaism”

Psalms 6, 9, 10, 13, 18, 22, 28, 30, 31, 34, 36, 40, 41, 66, 67, 111, 118, 138, 144

 

Optional Group Meeting

 
April 25

 

 Transcendence

Reading:

Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, 181-211

J. Shook, “Are People Born to be Believers”?

 
April 27

 

 Transcendence

Reading:

Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle

 

Fifth Section Meeting

View: https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_using_our_practical_wisdom?language=en

 

 

 

Happiness and the Good Life

by

So I have a confession: I like self-help books.  Over the years, I have probably read dozens of them, especially those that are – or claim to be – evidence-based.  Often going under the more respectable name of “positive” or “social” psychology, these books promise to deliver, usually in ten or fewer easy steps, happiness or the good life.  The pitch is not subtle: Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment is the title of one such book, leaving little to the imagination.

I am relatively happy and have a pretty fulfilling life.  Yet, like many, I sometimes feel that I could use some help.  I can lose my equanimity after an upsetting social interaction; relate better to those I love; live my life more in accord with my values.  And, after a long day reading serious texts in foreign languages, these books serve up advice in short, easy-to-understand, declarative sentences.  Who doesn’t enjoy a quiz that will tell them who they really are?

These books are not fraudulent.  One of my favorites, Thinking Fast and Slow is written by the Nobel Memorial Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman.  There is serious science behind many of them.  Yet as I read them, it is hard for me, as a scholar of religious traditions and practices, to shake the sense of déjà vu all over again.  Because, of course, the questions of living a happy, fulfilling, and meaningful life are just about as old as a distinctly human consciousness.  Multitudes of very smart people over many thousands of years have wrestled with precisely these big questions, even if they did not have modern survey techniques available to them (which is probably just as well, since they also did not have IRBs to approve them).  The amount of human energy spent pondering the meaning of life, and how to live it, is staggering.  Has today’s science of positive psychology really uncovered anything new, or found new insights that allow us to lead better lives?  Or does it just rehash what we already know, just in a different idiom?

That question is not a rhetorical one.  I don’t know.  What I do know, though, is that the basic problem of living a meaningful life – or at least of developing the tools that one needs to even begin to approach the problem – is a critical one that is at the heart of the humanities.  As a college student, I was vaguely aware of this, even if in the vast majority of my courses we never explicitly framed the question that way.  We learned topics, skills, and texts, but not how to make them relevant to our own lives.

Not much has changed in the nearly forty years since I was in college.  A student can easily go through college today, even as a humanities major, without explicitly grappling with the big – and maybe the only important – questions of meaning, happiness, and purpose.  I try to avoid comparing students today to those in my generation, and so am not sure if much has changed or not.  But it is no wonder that students at Yale flock to Laurie Santos’s happiness course (syllabus here). Even college students recognize that our society has a “happiness problem” (unsurprisingly, also the title of a self-help book) and like many, they look for a quick fix.

Last year as I went through the process of figuring out what to teach this year, maybe in a moment of temporary insanity fueled by envy (a character flaw I should work harder at), I thought, why should Professor Santos have all the fun?  Yes, I don’t actually know positive psychology and its science.  I do, though, know many religious and philosophical texts that deal with the same issues.  I cannot, and would not dare, teach a whole course on the science of happiness, but I could put that literature into conversation with the traditions and ideas that I do know, with ultimately the same goal of helping young adults acquire the resources that will help them construct happy and fulfilling lives.

Ambitious or crazy?  I’m not sure about that either.  What I do know is that this entry-level class is now on the books and I have to teach it in a few months.  And that leads me to the real point of this rambling post.

I am trying to set my readings for the class.  Some of the texts I am already fairly committed to:

  • Ecclesiastes, with parts of Ecclesiasticus (also known as Ben Sira): A meditation on the purpose of life, with some debate.  Also, arguably, a very early example of religious existentialism.
  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.  This is, of course, the classic (if, in my opinion, deeply flawed) text on thinking about happiness and the good life.
  • Victor Frankel, Man’s Search for Meaning.  A classic argument that a sense of purpose is critical for human thriving.  (Although, as Martin Kavka has reminded me, it raises a serious debate about whether we, when we lose our sense of purpose, are responsible for our own suffering).
  • Plato’s Gorgias.  Normally I would not have thought of including this text, but an opinion piece in the New York Times by Benjamin and Jenna Storey – and their generosity sharing their ideas personally with me – convinced me that it could work.
  • Selections of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa on happiness.  Again, an excellent idea suggested by the Storeys.  Here Aquinas thinks quite deeply about the nature of happiness.
  • Menachem Mendel Levin, Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh.  A remarkable little book from the nineteenth century that presents a theory of the human and a set of exercises designed to develop virtues.
  • Maurice Seligman, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being.  One of the positive psychology books that I found personally helpful, with fun quizzes and exercises.
  • Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.  This book in many ways tracks closely with what I want to accomplish in the class, by bringing modern happiness studies into conversation with older texts.
  • Russ Harris, The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living.  Suggested by a friend, there are a few chapters that are excellent starting points for the entire question of whether we should seek happiness at all.
  • St. Therese of Lisieux, Autobiography.  This is the spiritual autobiography of a nun, which has been recognized and promoted by the Roman Catholic Church.  The truth is that I do not care much for this book, but it is worth reading and debating.
  • William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life.  I debate including this one more than the others, but it does make an argument that students should hear and consider, if they have not already.

I am not sure if this is too much or too little; there is certainly much, much more that can and should be included, despite having to come up against the hard practical limits of a semester’s course.  My thinking remains fluid, and I also posted in Facebook asking my friends to weigh in on texts that might also be included in such a course.  What I was really looking for were relevant texts – texts that changed the way that they thought about the big questions and actually lived – that they read after they were students but that they wished they had read earlier.  Not everybody read the prompt carefully, but it did generate a number of further suggestions that I am considering:

That’s all I have for now.  Further suggestions and thoughts are welcome!