Natural Goodness

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In recent decades, philosophers have returned to Aristotle's teleological approach to ethics, according to which ethics can be grounded in natural facts about the proper functioning of living organisms. In this course, we will explore the viability of this way of thinking about ethics, raising questions at the intersection of ethics, meta-ethics, and philosophy of biology. Some questions we will ask: What does it mean for an entity to be alive, and how are living things distinct from the rest of the natural world? Do living organisms have an intrinsic purpose by their very nature? Does the idea that living organisms have a purpose depend upon the idea of a sentient creator God, who designed them for such a purpose? Can teleological approaches to ethics be made consistent with a secular view of the natural world, or with the findings of contemporary biology? Over the course of the semester we will engage with contemporary Aristotelian approaches to these questions, as well as alternatives inspired by criticisms of Aristotelian approaches.