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Ethics

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2009

This will be a seminar on classic and contemporary work on central topics in ethics. The first third of the course will focus on **metaethics**: we will examine the meaning of moral claims and ask whether there is any sense in which moral principles are objectively valid. The second third of the course will focus on **normative ethics**: what makes our lives worth living, what makes our actions right or wrong, and what do we owe to others? The final third of the course will focus on **moral character**: what is virtue, and how important is it? Can we be held responsible for what we do? When and why?

Readings

  • Sher, George. Moral Philosophy: Selected Readings . 2nd ed. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt-Brace, 1995. ISBN: 9780155017559.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] = Sher, George. Moral Philosophy: Selected Readings . 2nd ed. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt-Brace, 1995. ISBN: 9780155017559.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Plato. “Euthyphro.” Chapter 14, pp. 166-179.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Moore, G. E. “Goodness as Simple and Indefinable.” Chapter 9, pp. 111-119.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Ayer, Alfred Jules. “The Emotive Theory of Ethics.” Chapter 10, pp. 120-128.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Brink, David. “The Form and Content of Moral Judgments.” Chapter 13, pp. 160-165.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Harman, Gilbert. “Ethics and Observation.” Chapter 17, pp. 205-211.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Sturgeon, Nicholas. “Moral Explanations.” Chapter 18, pp. 212-232.
    Listed reading
  • Harman, Gilbert. “What is Moral Relativism?” In Values and Morals: Essays in Honor of William Frankena, Charles Stevenson and Richard Brandt . Edited by Alvin I. Goldman, and Jaegwon Kim. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1978, pp. 143-161. ISBN: 9789027709141.
    Listed reading
  • Foot, Philippa. “Moral Relativism.” Chapter 13 in Moral Relativism: A Reader . Edited by Paul K. Moser, and Thomas L. Carson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 185-198. ISBN: 9780195131307.
    Listed reading
  • Lyons, David. “Ethical Relativism and the Problem of Incoherence.” Chapter 10 in Moral Relativism: A Reader . Edited by Paul K. Moser, and Thomas L. Carson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 127-141. ISBN: 9780195131307.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Mill, John Stuart. “Utilitarianism (selections).” Chapter 23, pp. 298-312.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Nozick, Robert. “The Experience Machine.” Chapter 44, pp. 612-614.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Parfit, Derek. “What Makes Someone’s Life Go Best?” Chapter 49, pp. 665-674.
    Listed reading
  • Norcross, Alastair. “Comparing Harms: Headaches and Human Lives.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 26, no. 2 (Spring 1997): 136-167.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Williams, Bernard. “A Critique of Utilitarianism.” Chapter 27, pp. 353-363.
    Listed reading
  • Lenman, James. “Consequentialism and Cluelessness.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 29, no. 4 (Autumn 2000): 342-370.
    Listed reading
  • Singer, Peter. “Is Act-Utilitarianism Self-Defeating?” Philosophical Review 81, no. 1 (January 1972): 94-104.
    Listed reading
  • Rawls, John. “Two Concepts of Rules.” Philosophical Review 64, no. 1 (January 1955): 3-32.
    Listed reading
  • Nagel, Thomas. “Ethics.” Chapter IX in The View from Nowhere . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 164-188. ISBN: 9780195056440.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Rawls, John. “Classical Utilitarianism.” Chapter 26, pp. 348-352.
    Listed reading
  • Nagel, Thomas. “Equality.” Chapter 8 in Mortal Questions . Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Reprint, Canto ed. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 106-127. ISBN: 9780521406765.
    Listed reading
  • Williams, Bernard. “The Idea of Equality.” Chapter 14 in Problems of the Self . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1976, pp. 230-249. ISBN: 9780521290609.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Singer, Peter. “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.” Chapter 51, pp. 694-704.
    Listed reading
  • Arpaly, Nomy. “Moral Worth.” Journal of Philosophy 99, no. 5 (May 2002): 223-245.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Wolf, Susan. “Moral Saints.” Chapter 40, pp. 563-580.
    Listed reading
  • van Inwagen, Peter. “The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism.” Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 27, no. 3 (March 1975): 185-199.
    Listed reading
  • Frankfurt, Harry G. “Possibilities and Moral Responsibility.” Journal of Philosophy 66, no. 23 (December 4, 1969): 829-839.
    Listed reading
  • [Sher] Nagel, Thomas. “Moral Luck.” Chapter 33, pp. 441-452.
    Listed reading
Sources