History of Ethics

The project of British moral philosophers after Hobbes was to rebut what they all perceived as an ethics based solely on enlightened self-interest with one based on disinterested concern for others. We will examine the early responses to Hobbes of Richard Cumberland and the Earl of Shaftesbury; the moral sense theorists Francis Hutcheson, Joseph Butler, David Hume, Lord Kames, and Adam Smith; and the rationalists Ralph Cudworth and Samuel Clarke. This course is recommended preparation for PHIL 1240 , Kant's Practical Philosophy.