PHIL 234 - Ethics

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Ethics as a branch of philosophy investigates basic questions about the nature of morality, human happiness, right and wrong, pleasure and pain, the virtues and vices – all with a view to answering the inescapable question: How should I live my life? In the first half of the semester, we read seminal texts by Immanuel Kant, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and others who seek to ground ethics in universal, rational principles (e.g., “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness”). Then, we turn to more recent critics of the dominant modern paradigms – while looking back to the ancient Greeks – in order to reexamine the limits and prospects of philosophy’s role in ethical reflection. Authors in the second half of the semester include Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Bernard Williams, and Sophie-Grace Chappell. Christopher Raymond.

Prerequisite(s): At least one 100-level course in Philosophy.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS