INQ-120 | A Perfect World

Full Title: A Perfect World

Topic Description:

What would a perfect world look like? How should society be structured to achieve that ideal? What prevents our existing social, economic, and political structures from operating as intended? Scholars have been dreaming up different visions of a Utopian society for centuries. In this course, students will ponder these questions anew through reading both classic philosophical texts and modern psychological research. This course is not intended to arrive at a single conception of an ideal society, but to consider deeply how different visions of society reflect specific assumptions about human nature, and to scrutinize those assumptions in light of empirical evidence from decades of psychological research. Ultimately, in attempting to learn what a perfect world could look like, we must critically and honestly examine the imperfections in our own society.

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: December 2017