Syllabus
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COURSE OBJECTIVES: Understanding some of the major theories, concepts, problems and arguments in meta-ethics, normative ethics, and practical ethics.
CLASS FORMAT: There are two classes each week. The first is a lecture and large-group discussion. The second is further explanation and discussion followed by a short-answer test.
PREREQUISITES: None
REQUIRED TEXT: Christina Sommers and Fred Sommers, Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life. Wadsworth, 2007.
CURRICULUM AND WEEKLY READINGS: Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of morality, theories of right and wrong, and moral questions in politics, medicine, religion, education, and law. This course starts with practical issues, specifically arguments about raising and killing animals for food. That leads to examination of three sources of pessimism about ethics - psychological egoism, ethical egoism, and moral relativism. Students are introduced to the major traditions in normative ethical theory - consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. We discuss Mill, Kant, and Aristotle. We also analyse vices and virtues, and ask the question "Why be moral?". Returning to practical matters at the end of the course, we assess arguments about the obligations of private individuals to persons living in absolute poverty.
- Introduction: (a) The moral point of view. (b) Secular and religious ethics.
- Peter Singer, Down on the Factory Farm (1 st week)
- James Rachels, A Moral Defense of Vegetarianism (2 nd week)
- Roger Scruton, The Moral Status of Animals (2 nd week)
- James Rachels, Egoism and Moral Skepticism (3 rd week)
- Louis Pojman, Who’s to Judge? (4 th week)
- Jonathan Bennett, The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn (5 th week)
- John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (6 th week)
- Bernard Williams, A Critique of Utilitarianism (7th week)
- Immanuel Kant, Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative (8 th week)
- Bernard Mayo, Virtue or Duty (9 th week)
- Immanuel Kant, Jealousy, Envy, and Spite (10 th week)
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (11 th week)
- Colin McGinn, Why Not Be a Bad Person (12 th week)
- Peter Singer, Why Act Morally? (12 th week)
- Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence, and Morality (13 th week)
