Splash Biography

Famed author Vladimir Nabokov possessed a unique gift for depicting cruelty. In this class, we'll read and discuss one of Nabokov's short stories with an eye towards developing a better understanding of cruelty and the kind of sensitivity capable of opposing it.

In ancient ethics, we find one idea consistently emphasized: that while all animals are capable of living, humans alone are able to really have a life. In this class, we’ll look into the nature of this distinction and try to figure out why it’s so important to ethical reflection.

It seems natural to say, of a particularly beloved individual, that he or she is irreplaceable to you. But what exactly do we mean when we use irreplaceable in this sense? And how does the possibility of this sort of irreplaceability change the way we think about the good life?