Presented by a team of tutors, this special course explores questions about the human conditions through looking at examples of when we are good, ugly and downright bad. We ask such questions as: What motivates us into selfless, inspiring and heroic behaviour? Is war an inevitable outcome of the human condition? We unpack such questions through examining history, politics and culture. This course was successfully delivered by WEA tutors at Woollahra and has come home for WEA students.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

COURSE OUTLINE

• Introduction to the Human Condition (Christine Gietz)
• Good, Bad and Ugly – Historical Perspective (Michael Hauptman)
• The Ugly – Lies, scamming, fake news (Sandy Killick)
• The Ugly – ‘Us’ vs ‘Them’ (Sandy Killick)
• Can Philosophies Help? (Sandy Killick)
• The Bad – The problem of evil (Sonya Thompson)
• The Bad – Is evil inevitable? (Sonya Thompson)
• The conflict of good (Lanning Bennett)
• The psychology of good (Lanning Bennett)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Understand the complexity of the concept of the human condition
2. Discuss and evaluate the nature of “good”, “bad” and “ugly” in the human condition
3. Understand the human condition within the context of historical, political and cultural contexts
4. Consider philosophical questions relating to the human condition