Work & Meaning II: What makes work meaningful?
Thu, Oct 27
Learning goals - By the end of this session you will:
- Critically evaluate one philosophical account of meaningful work
- Generate your own (consensus) pluralistic account of meaning in work, responding to particular examples of meaningful/less work in your experiences
- Understand why Wiman's and Berry's poems 'work' on us, or what we get from it that we wouldn't get from an essay on the same subject)
- Compare Veltman's and your own theory of meaningful work to Wiman's and Berry's.
Read This:
Access readings on the course's Perusall page.
- Andrea Veltman, "What Makes Work Meaningful?" (2016) (excerpts)
- Christian Wiman, "I Don't Want to be a Spice Store" (2019) (poem)
- Wendell Berry, "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" (1973) (poem)
Watch This:
In this interview with Bill Moyer, philosopher Martha Nussbaum describes that the inevitable pain that comes from caring deeply about multiple things or feeling called in multiple directions at once. The video is set to start at the 2:16 time mark. You can stop at 7:40.