The course returns to the ground from which it began. This week, we consider virtue in particular human lives, in readings united by their assumption that the moral life requires self-examination — sustained, honest attention to one's own habits, motivations, and patterns.
Written from the perspective of a senior devil instructing his nephew on how to corrupt a human soul, The Screwtape Letters is one of the most penetrating works of moral psychology in the English language.
Brooks distills Aristotle's account of the good life into ten rules accessible to a contemporary reader — well-suited to the kind of self-examination this week is meant to provoke.
This episode returns to the practical-discipline thread of Weeks 3 and 4. The septum, in Dr. Majeres's account, is a small physical region of the brain that plays an outsized role in motivation and meaning. The episode is grounded in neuroscience but oriented to practice.
Jefferson outlines a daily routine for his daughter Patsy, warns her against "ennui," and tells her that "the true secret, the grand recipe for felicity" is that "A mind always employed is always happy."
Washington's First Inaugural is brief but contains some of the most striking passages in American oratory on the connection between personal virtue, public office, and divine providence.