The Human Predicament in Three Masterpieces

The human predicament is in many ways tragic¿or so argues the pessimistic South African philosopher David Benatar in his new book by that title. We are beset by pain and evil and we can eke out order and meaning only with sustained effort. In this class we will study three masterpieces in some detail: Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667), Gulliver¿s Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift, and Middlemarch by George Eliot (1872). These three works take up the human predicament (¿all our woe¿ as Milton famously calls it) in diverse forms: political, social, physical, psychological, financial, marital, domestic. They are astonishing works that more than repay intense close study. We will take these great works on their own terms, first, and then in relation to the great questions of suffering, joy, redemption, and transcendence that they offer. Participants in the class are asked to read David Benatar¿s The Human Predicament before the first class meeting.