Ethics with Dr. Prianti
Anthony Sinito
This Fall, there will be a special humanities class available for Honors students taught by Dr. Prianti called Ethics. This Honors class will have a “good life” focus, providing students with engaging philosophies and ideas from a wide range of philosophers, present and past, that will help students “live” better. Examples of this may be philosophies on how to empathize with others in understanding, or how we should respond to certain situations in a healthy way. Perhaps the most important of these philosophies of living is the category of the philosophy of happiness, which will also be explored. A good deal of attention will also be given to contemporary moral issues in our society and daily lives today, relevant or otherwise, ranging from specifics to more general topics.
The book the course most likely will use is a new book called The Philosophy of Happiness by Lorraine Besser, a book that Dr. Prianti mentioned he has used recently and which students have liked. He mentioned he had a few other ideas and thinks he may poll them before the semester starts since it would be more worthwhile if the book is one the class collectively agrees on. The reading that will be assigned will take place on a social platform called Persuall that Dr. Prianti and Dr. Bomberger discovered in a workshop a few years ago. Dr. Prianti is currently in a workshop which allows him to explore more of Persuall’s uses for the course. If social distancing has concluded in the Fall, he plans on forming attendance around groups consisting of 4-5 students in a flipped-class system which he and other professors have become accustomed to. The discussions in class will be tied to both the material and a weekly session he calls “Offensive Fridays,” consisting of discussions about controversial issues that typically don’t get civil outlets.
He told me, “I may ask students to get a hold of a Netflix subscription, as I may assign some movies and shows for homework. I’m currently trying that out right now, and I’m on the fence about how it would fit in a non-hybrid course. I offered watch parties as alternative assignments all the time over this past year, so I’m sure I’ll be using movies in some form. Just warn students that I love bringing horror films into philosophy, so they will have to push me away from that.” Dr. Prianti explained that he still has a lot of creative ideas that he’d like to explore, but that he is still in a “right now” phase in proceeding, and finally said that he is just enjoying the thought and planning of the class until it takes place.
