Dear Student,

This course is scheduled to be retired on Nov. 30, 2024. You may continue to work on this course until then. We are not replacing this course at this time.  Please browse this subject to find other comparable courses.

 Please check out the Live courses that are similar here: https://caravel.homeschoolconnections.com/catalog/

NOTICE: This is an older course recorded with Adobe Connect and/or Vimeo recordings. We are currently working to replace the recordings with new Zoom recordings.  Please don't hesitate to email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com with any questions.
Total classes: 12
Instructor: Jean Rioux, Ph.D.
Prerequisite: None
Suggested grade level: 11th and 12th grade
Suggested credit: 1 full semester Philosophy
Instructor: Jean Rioux, PhD
Instructor's Biography: Dr. Rioux is a professor and chair of the philosophy department at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where he has taught for 24 years.
A graduate of Thomas Aquinas College, he completed his graduate work in philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies in Houston, earning the M.A. in 1984 and the Ph.D. in 1990.
Specializing in the thought of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, Dr. Rioux has published textbooks in logic and natural philosophy, as well as articles on the philosophy of mathematics in the Thomist and the Aquinas Review.
He came to Benedictine with a love for the study of primary texts, as well as a keen interest in what computers might bring to that study. His contributions to the philosophical life of Benedictine College range from Great Books Sequences in philosophy and theology to 3D software for students of logic. He and his wife, Maria, raise their nine children in a farmhouse in rural Kansas. They have been designing their own curricula and educating their children at home for over 20 years.
Course description: This is an introduction to moral philosophy using Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics as the primary text.
Course outline:
  • Class 1: Human happiness (Nicomachean Ethics I 1-7)
  • Class 2: Human happiness (I 8-10, 13)
  • Class 3: Virtue (II 1-4)
  • Class 4: Virtue (II 5-9)
  • Class 5: Moral responsibility (III 1-2)
  • Class 6: Moral responsibility (III 3-5)
  • Class 7: The cardinal virtues (fortitude, III 6-9 and temperance, III 10-12)
  • Class 8: The cardinal virtues (prudence, VI 5 and 13 and justice, V 1, 7, and 10)
  • Class 9: Natural law (Thomas Aquinas, selections from Treatise on Law)
  • Class 10: Continence and incontinence (VII 1-3)
  • Class 11: Friendship (VIII 1-4 and IX 9)
  • Class 12: Contemplation (X 6-8)
Course materials: Reading materials will be provided free by the instructor.