Week 13 -- 11/23-27 -- Voluntary Assisted Suicide

• Monday 11/23: Movie, "A death of one's own" QUESTIONNAIRE IN CLASS
• THANKSGIVING BREAK: Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 12 -- 11/16-20 -- Death Penalty, Finished -- Voluntary Assisted Suicide, started

• Monday 11/16: Death Penalty -- no new readings
• Wednesday 11/18: EXAM 8 on death penalty
• Friday 11/20: Movie, "A death of one's own", started

Week 11 -- 11/9-13 -- Death Penalty

• 11/9 and 11/13 Death Penalty -- No class on 11/11
• Readings: The readings are downloadable from Blackboard
  • van den Haag `In Defense of Death Penalty'
  • Bedau, `The Case Against Death Penalty'
• Study Questions:
  1. Bedau suggests that the death penalty is unfairly applied and shouldn't be applied because of this. Provide some reasons for thinking so. Why does van den Haag think that the death penalty should be applied anyway?
  2. Bedau thinks that the death penalty should not be applied because it is irreversible. What is his argument in support of such a claim? What is van den Haag's counter-argument that it should be applied anyway?
  3. Bedau thinks that the death penalty doesn't act as a deterrent. Provide reasons for thinking he's right. Why does van den Haag think that is should be applied anyway?
  4. Bedau thinks that the death penalty is excessive and contrary to human dignity? Why? Why does van den Haag think he's wrong on this?
• Discussion Questions :
  1. What do you think is the purpose of us punishing criminals? How do you think punishment can be justified from a utilitarian point of view? from the point of view of duty theory?
  2. To what extent do you think the saying "an eye for an eye" provides adequate justification and guidance for just punishments?
  3. Which arguments in favor of death penalty do you find the most convincing? the least convincing? Why?
• Powerpoint: Death Penalty

Week 10 -- 11/2-6 -- Death Penalty

• 11/2 -- EXAM 7 -- on Virtue Ethics -- Beginning of the Movie Dead Man Walking
• 11/4-6 -- Movie Dead Man Walking
• QUESTIONNAIRE TO TURN IN BY EMAIL BEFORE 10pm on Friday 11/6: Questionnaire

Week 9 -- 9/-26-30 -- Virtue Ethics

• Readings:
  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book I and II, pp. 124-140
  • Nussbaum, `Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach', pp. 704-723
• Study Questions:
  1. What is happiness according to Aristotle?
  2. Does the truly virtuous man take pleasure in being virtuous according to Aristotle? Explain.
  3. Are we born virtuous or vicious according to Aristotle?
  4. What does Aristotle mean when he claims that virtues are a mean between two excesses?
  5. How do we become virtuous according to Aristotle?
  6. How can we come up with a reasonably culture-independent list of virtues according to Nussbaum?
  7. In what sense is morality context-dependent in virtue ethics? In what sense is it still objective?
• Powerpoint: Virtue Ethics

Week 8 -- 9/19-23 -- Duty Theory

• 9/12-14 Duty Theory -- no new readings
• Powerpoint: Duty Theory

Week 7 -- 9/12-16 -- Utilitarianism, finished, Duty Theory, started

• 9/12 Utilitarianism, end -- no new readings
• 9/14 Duty Theory, started Readings:
  • Required: Onora O'Neill, Consistency in Action, pp. 562-576
  • Recommended: Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, pp. 280-318
• Study Questions:
  1. What is a "maxim" of our actions? Give an example. Can we know which maxims other people follow in their action? Can we know which maxims we follow ourselves?
  2. What does the Categorical Imperative tell us about the maxims of our actions? Explain how Kant would explain why willing to become a slaveholder is wrong.
  3. What is the difference between "contradictions in conception" and "contradictions in the will"?
  4. Explain why O'Neil can say that Kantian theory try to "ground ethical theory on notions of consistency and rationality".
• Powerpoint: Duty Theory

Week 6 -- 9/5-9 -- Utilitarianism

• Readings:
  • Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Chap. I-IV, pp.319-327
  • Mill, Utilitarianism, pp. 330-332, From top of 333 "We shall examine presently.." to bottom of 332 : "...in an ineffectual attempt to do both."
  • Williams, 'A Critique of Utilitarianism', From p. 612, last paragraph: "For a lot of the time so far...." to the end.
• Study Questions:
  1. What is Bentham's principle of utility? How does the principle of utility relate to what is right and wrong according to him?
  2. Can we prove the validity of the principle of utility according to Bentham? Can we disprove it?
  3. Explain how we should assess the moral value of our actions according to Bentham (Chap. IV).
  4. Explain Mill's answer to the claim that the doctrine which takes utility as a foundation of morals is "a doctrine only worthy of a swine".
  5. Explain Williams' example of George the chemist and Jim the botanist. What is the point that Williams is intending to make with these examples?
  6. Explain how, according to Williams, following the utilitarian rule may amount to "an attack on [our] integrity".
• Powerpoint: Utilitarianism
• 10/9 -- Review and EXAM 5

Week 5 -- The Evolution of Morality

• 9/28-30 -- The Evolution of Morality
  • Readings:
    • The Prisoner's dillemma, text downloadable HERE
    • Moral Minds: The Evolution of Human Morality, ABC radio, Transcript downloadable HERE
    • Pinker, `The moral instinct', text downloadable HERE
  • Study Questions:
    1. Explain what is the prisoner's dilemma. What is it supposed to show? How were the conditions of the experiment modified? What results came out of such modifications of the experiment?
    2. What is the "trolley problem"? What does Hauser think people's most common answers to the trolley problem show about moral choices?
    3. Explain the idea that we have a "moral instinct" in the form of a universal moral grammar. Would it mean that our moral values are biologically determined?
    4. Why does Joyce think that, if our moral judgments can be shown to be the result of evolutionary processes, then we must admit that there are no moral truth? Does Pinker agree with Joyce on this point? explain Pinker's comparison between mathematical truths and moral truths.
    5. Explain Pinker's statement: "ÒSelfishÓ genes are perfectly compatible with selfless organisms"
  • Powerpoint: The Evolution of Morality
• 10/2 -- Review and EXAM 4

Week 4 -- Morality and Religion

• 9/21 -- The Divine Command Theory -- 9/22 The Natural Law Theory
  • Readings:
    • Plato, Euthyphro, your book pp. 5-16
    • Aquinas, text downloadable HERE
  • Study Questions:
    1. Try to understand Socrates' argument pp. 10-11
    2. According to Aquinas, what is the difference between humans and animals regarding the natural law?
    3. How can we learn about the natural law?
    4. Do non-believers have access to the content of the natural law?
    5. Does the natural law tell us about particular cases?
  • Powerpoint: Morality and Religion
• 9/24 -- Review and EXAM 3

Week 3 -- Challenges to Morality

• 9/14 -- Cultural Relativism
  • Readings: Rachels, "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism", pp. 696-703
  • Study Questions:
    1. What is Cultural Relativism?
    2. What evidence is supposed to speak in favor of Cultural Relativism?
    3. What is the Cultural Difference Argument?
    4. Is the Cultural Difference Argument valid? Why / Why not?
    5. What evidence speaks against Cultural Relativism?
    6. Which lesson should we take from the existence of cultural differences concerning morality?
  • Powerpoint The Challenge of Cultural Relativism
• 9/16 -- Psychological Egoism
  • Readings:
    • Plato, Republic, book 2 -- pp. 65-73 (357a-369c)
    • Feinberg, "Psychological Egoism" pp. 548-555
  • Study Questions:
    1. According to Glaucon, why are humans acting right?
    2. Explain the story of Gyges's ring: what is the point that Glaucon is intending to make in telling such a story?
    3. What is psychological egoism?
    4. What kind of human behavior would be well explained by psychological egoism?
    5. What kind of human behavior is not well explained by psychological egoism?
    6. What are the usual arguments given in favor of psychological egoism? Are these arguments valid?
    7. What arguments can we level against psychological egoism?
    8. What is the "paradox of hedonism"?
  • Powerpoint Psychological Egoism

• 9/18 -- Review and EXAM 2

Week 2 -- Arguments

• 9/7 -- No class -- Labor Day
• 9/9 -- Arguments
  • Readings: Soazig Le Bihan -- Arguments
  • Study Questions: do the exercises !
  • Powerpoint Arguments

• 9/11 -- Arguments + EXAM 1 (on everything since the beginning of the course)
  Your exam will consist in 2 parts:
  1. Part 1 : You will be asked to answer 3 questions that test your command of the course content. Your answer should not be more than 50 words long for each question.
  2. Part 2: You will have to explain and discuss a passage taken from the readings. That is, you will have to identify the philosophical point that the author is making and discuss it in a short essay (no more than 400 words).
  The answers in Part 1 will receive a letter grade. Your answer in Part 2 will be graded P (passing), U (unsatisfactory), or E (excellent). A P will raise the grade for part 1 by one step (B to B+ for example), a U will lower it by one step, and a E will raise it by two steps (B to A- for example).

Week 1 -- Introduction to the course

• 8/31 -- Presentation of the course
• 9/2 -- Movie "The courage to care" -- Debate: are there moral truths?
• 9/4 -- Why Ethics? Why Philosophy?
  • Readings: Leiser -- "Is Homosexuality unnatural?"
  • Study Questions:
    1. What is the argument for the view that homosexuality is wrong?
    2. What are the various meanings of "natural" and "unnatural"?
    3. In which of these meanings, if any, can homosexual behavior be said to be unnatural?
    4. In which of these meaning, if any, can it be said that what is unnatural is morally wrong?
    5. What is the conclusion that we ought to draw concerning the argument of question 1?
  • Powerpoint Ethics: philosophy and morality -- the example of homosexuality