| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introductory Lecture | "Introduction." In Morality Matters. pp. 1-10. |
| I. Goodness | ||
| 2 | Pleasure | Bentham, Jeremy. "Classical Hedonism." In Morality Matters. p. 42. Nozick, Robert. "The Experience Machine." In Morality Matters. p. 45. |
| 3 | Desire Satisfaction |
Also Recommended Loeb, Don. "Full Information Theories of the Individual Good." Social Theory and Practice 21, no. 1 (Spring 1995). |
| 4 | Objective List Theories |
|
| 5 | Environmentalism | Leopold, Aldo. "The Land Ethic." In Morality Matters. p. 590. Wenz, Peter S. "Ecology and Morality." In Morality Matters. p. 595. Baxter, William F. "People or Penguins." In Morality Matters. p. 600. |
| 6 | Animal Rights | Singer, Peter. "Animal Liberation." In Morality Matters. p. 621. Steinbock, Bonnie. "Speciesism and the Idea of Equality." In Morality Matters. p. 628. |
| 7 | Immortality |  Williams, Bernard. "The Makropulos case; reflections on the tedium of immortality." Chapter 6 in Problems of the Self. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1973, pp. 82-100. ISBN: 0521290600. |
| II. Right and Wrong | ||
| 8 | Egoism and Skepticism | Rachels, James. "Egoism and Moral Skepticism." In Morality Matters. p. 28. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Selection from On the Genealogy of Morals. |
| 9 | Religion and Morality | Plato. Euthyphro. Translated by Benjamin Jowett, 2004. Arthur, John. "Morality, Religion and Conscience." In Morality Matters. p. 35. |
| 10 | Relativism and Toleration | Benedict, Ruth. "A Defense of Moral Relativism." In Morality Matters. p. 99. Midgley, Mary. "Trying Out One's New Sword: A Critique of Moral Isolationism." In Morality Matters. p. 109. |
| 11 | Utilitarianism, Deontology and Virtue | Mill, John Stuart. "Utilitarianism." In Morality Matters. p. 47. Kant, Immanuel. "The Categorical Imperative." In Morality Matters. p. 51. Sayre-McCord, Geoff. "Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Very Brief Selective Summary of Sections 1 and 2." (PDF) |
| 12 | Continuing Moral Theory | Aristotle. "Virtue Ethics." In Morality Matters. p. 60.
|
| III. Justice | ||
| 13 | Global Justice | Singer, Peter. "Famine, Affluence and Morality." In Morality Matters. p. 517. Hardin, Garrett. "Lifeboat Ethics." In Morality Matters. p. 524. |
| 14 | Equality | Scanlon, Timothy. "When Does Equality Matter?" Unpublished manuscript. |
| 15 | Social Justice | Rawls, John. "A Theory of Justice." In Morality Matters. p. 549. Cohen, Joshua. "Reconciling Liberty and Equality." (PDF) (Courtesy of Joshua Cohen. Used here with permission.) |
| 16 | Race, Gender, Poverty | Pearce, Diana M. "The Feminization of Poverty." In Morality Matters. p. 528. Wilkerson, Margaret B., and Jewell Handy Gresham. "The Racialization of Poverty." In Morality Matters. p. 533.
|
| 17 | Welfare and Freedom | Machan Tibor R. "The Non-existence of Basic Welfare Rights." In Morality Matters. p. 555. Fraser, Nancy. "Women, Welfare and the Politics of Need Interpretation." In Morality Matters. p. 561. |
| IV. Punishment and the Death Penalty | ||
| 18-21 | Punishment and the Death Penalty | Gregg vs. Georgia |
| 18 | Vengeance, Retribution, Reform | Camus, Albert. "Reflections on the Guillotine." In Morality Matters. p. 223.
|
| 19 | Punishment and the Body | Foucault, Michel. "The Body of the Condemned" and "Docile Bodies." In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison. 2nd ed. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1995. ISBN: 0679752552. |
| 20 | Death Penalty and Deterrence | Van Den Haag, Ernest. "On Deterrence and the Death Penalty." In Morality Matters. p. 228. Bedau, Hugo. "The Death Penalty as a Deterrent." In Morality Matters. p. 232. |
| 21 | Race and the Death Penalty | Amsterdam, Anthony. "Race and the Death Penalty." In Morality Matters. p. 241.
|
| V. Sexuality and Marriage | ||
| 22 | The Purpose of Sex | Aquinas, Thomas. "The Purpose of Sex." In Morality Matters. p. 268. Levin, Michael. "Why Homosexuality is Abnormal." In Morality Matters. p. 281. |
| 23 | (Film in lecture, but keep reading) | Mohr, Richard. "Gay Basics: Some Questions, Facts, and Values." In Morality Matters. p. 273. Lloyd, Elisabeth. "Pre-Theoretical Assumptions in Evolutionary Explanations of Female Sexuality." Philosophical Studies 69 (1993): 139-153. |
| 24 | Other Sexualities | West, Robin. "The Hams of Consensual Sex." Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy 94, no. 2 (1995).
|
| 25 | Marriage and Gay Marriage | Kant, Immanuel. "On Sexuality and Marriage." In Morality Matters. p. 271.
|
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
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Readings listed below should be completed by lecture in the session listed. In addition to readings by session, recommended readings are also listed below.
Your TA may set additional assignments (reading, writing, and oral presentations). Note that an assignment for the first section is included below.
Di Leo, Jeffrey R., ed. Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender in Applied Ethics. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002. ISBN: 0072840757.
Bedau, Hugo. Thinking and Writing About Philosophy. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002. ISBN: 0312396538.
"Moral Relativism." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2004. (Look especially at section 2.)
Rachels, James. "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism." Adapted from Rachels, James. The Elements of Moral Philosophy. 3rd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1999, chapter 2, pp. 15-29. ISBN: 0070525609.
Epicurus. "The Good Life." Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines. In Epicurus: The Extant Remains. Edited by Cyril Baily. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1926.
Taylor, Charles. "The Diversity of Goods." In Utilitarianism and Beyond. Edited by Amartya Sen and Bernard Williams. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002 [1982]. ISBN: 0521287715.
Feldman, Fred. "The Categorical Imperative" and "Problems for CI2." In Introductory Ethics. New York, NY: Prentice Hall, 1978. ISBN: 0135017831.
MacIntyre. Alisdaire. "Tradition and the Virtues." In After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. 2nd ed. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984. ISBN: 0268006113.
Fraser, Nancy. "Reinventing the Welfare State." Boston Review Forum: Reinventing the Welfare State.
Cohen, Joshua. "Possessive Libertarianism." (PDF) (Courtesy of Joshua Cohen. Used here with permission.)