About Suffering and the human condition course
Suffering is an inescapable yet poorly understood feature of the human condition. This course examines how societies respond to the puzzling reality of human suffering. Among the questions it addresses are: What is suffering? What kinds of human suffering are unique to the modern world? Have the meanings and depictions of suffering changed over time? Do digital media draw our attention to the suffering of distant people? In addition to introducing students to the scholarly literature and debates on these topics, Suffering and the Human Condition will equip them with a method for studying human suffering that identifies the actors who perpetuate it.
