PHL 3400 The Philosophy of Home
We are constantly talking about home: I’m going home for the weekend to visit my parents. The library is going to be my home base this weekend. Make yourself at home. You’re in the home stretch! Each and every day, we encounter the homeless, the homesick, the homemade, and the homegrown. What could be more intuitive? This course will explore the philosophical, psychological, and social import of the concept of home as each a physical space, a mental state, and a legal and moral right. Our interdisciplinary approach will drawupon history, architecture, psychological, philosophical, sociology, and literary criticism in order to tackle questions not only of enduring human interest, but of immediate import in an era characterized in no small part by mass migration and global poverty. What does it mean to have a home, and to feel at home? What are the complexities behind the idea of a homeland? How can understanding the concept of home help us to understand both ourselves and the world around us?
Course Types
Expression; Advanced Studies
- Students will be able to understand and critically analyze philosophical, sociological, and psychological dimensions of home, and how those dimensions are mirrored in everything from domestic architecture to foreign policy.
- Students will gain an appreciation of how notions of home are intertwined with social and political concerns as well as with the cultivation of personal identity.
- Students will have cultivated an awareness of the tools we will need for building our own homes in the world (externally as a space, internally as an orientation to the world, and politically as members of a community).