Human Nature – The Deviant Philosopher

Lesson: Theano II on Moral Education

by Jerry Green (University of Central Oklahoma)

This lesson focuses on a fragment of text from the late Pythagorean philosopher Theano (probably of Sparta, c. 4th-3rd century bce) on different kinds of value and their role in moral education. Theano approaches this topic through the lens of everyday moral advice.[1]

Unit: Lynching, the Milgram Experiments, and the Question of Whether “Human Nature Is Good”

by Eric Schwitzgebel (University of California at Riverside)

This is a two-week unit. Day one is on the history of lynching in the United States, featuring lynching photography and Ida B. Wells. Day two is Mengzi on human nature (with Rousseau as secondary reading). Day three is Xunzi on human nature (with Hobbes as secondary reading). Days four and five are the Milgram video and John Doris on situationism.