D'oh! The University of Glasgow is offering a one-of-a-kind philosophy course featuring the famous Homer Simpson.
The short course, titled "D'oh! The Simpsons Introduce Philosophy," will be a one-day course that will examine the philosophical wisdom of Springfield's most famous nuclear safety inspector, reports BBC. The course will construct philosophical questions based on the Simpsons, and will relate them to subjects such as morality, religion, and free will.
The course, which will run on January 14 and 21, was the idea of Glasgow philosophy tutor John Donaldson, who believed that using the Simpsons will bring much interest in the subject. And he was right: the course has attracted a huge amount of interest and is expected to have a massive number of subscribers, Daily Mail reported.
"Matt Groening, the man behind The Simpsons, was a student of philosophy, and that comes through in each episode," Donaldson said. "The Simpsons is a very sophisticated work of popular culture, with a broad scope and depth, and is full of philosophical themes"
"Very pleasingly, the course has proved to be incredibly popular on social media. It has gone viral. We've never really had a response like this before," he added.
The course will be examining Aristotle's account of a virtuous character and then compare it with Homer. Those who join the course will then debate as to whether Homer could be considered virtuous.
Donaldson said that Homer is a very complex character who is not hard to like. Although the famous cartoon character has some downsides like being gluttonous, violent, and self-interested, he also possesses a "childlike joy of life," would be open to doing what's right, and is a faithful family man.
"I like the Simpsons because it's a great work of art. It's a cartoon of a great tapestry. There's so much going on in it," Donaldson said. "It encourages you to reflect on what's important in life."
