Philosophy 3100 - Ethical Theory

Additional Readings

see syllabus for reading due dates, if not listed below

 

  1. Ayer, “Critique of Ethics and Theology,” from Language, Truth and Logic (1936). Read pp. 102-113 (rest optional).
  2. Hume, excerpts on subjectivism from A Treatise of Human Nature (1740), bk. 3, pt. 1, sec. 1;
    and An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), app. 1.
  3. Moore, "The Nature of Moral Philosophy," from his Philosophical Studies (1922). Required: pp. 329-334. Rest optional.
  4. Plato, excerpt from Euthyphro (380 BCE).
  5. Moore, §§5-13 from Principia Ethica (1903). You can skip §§11-12.
  6. Ross, "What Makes Right Acts Right?" from The Right and the Good (1930). Required for now:
         -     big paragraph on pp. 19-20;
         - p. 29 (middle of page) - p. 34 (very top, until the break);
         - p. 39 (from the break) - p. 41 (to the break).
    Rest optional for now.
  7. Mackie, "The Subjectivity of Values," ch. 1 of Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (1977).
  8. Mill, excerpts from Utilitarianism (1863).  [due Mon 2/22]
  9. Feldman, "What is Act Utilitarianism?" from his Introductory Ethics (1978).  [due Mon 2/22]
  10. Feldman, "Act Utilitarianism: Arguments Pro and Con," from his Introductory Ethics (1978). Required: "The 'Too High for Humanity' Objection" (pp. 36-38) and "The 'Lack of Time' Objection" (pp. 38-41). Rest optional.  [due Mon 2/22]
  11. Nielsen, "Against Moral Conservativism," Ethics 82 (1972): 219-231. Section III optional, but recommended.     [due Wed 2/24]
  12. Feldman, "Problems for Act Utilitarianism," from his Introductory Ethics (1978). Required pp. 52-60. Rest optional.  [due Wed 2/24]
  13. Ross, "What Makes Right Acts Right?" from The Right and the Good (1930). Same document as #6 above. Required: p. 34 (from the break) - p. 39 (to the break).  [due Mon 3/1]
  14. Bentham, excerpt from An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1781). Optional sections: ch. 1, §§VII-X; ch. 4, §§IV-VIII.    [due Wed 3/3]
  15. Parfit, "What Makes Someone's Life Go Best?" from Reasons and Persons (1984). Section J not required.    [due Wed 3/3]
  16. Nozick, "The Experience Machine," from Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974).   [due Mon 3/8]
  17. Kraut, "Desire and the Human Good," Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 68 (1994): 39–54.  [due Wed 3/10]
  18. Norcross, "Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases," Philosophical Perspectives 18 (2004): 229-245. Read pp. 229-236; rest optional.    [due Mon 3/15]
  19. Kant, excerpts from Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals (1785), from the version by presented by Jonathan Bennett at www.earlymoderntexts.com.    [due Mon 3/29 ]
    Required:
         - pp. 10 (righthand side, from the break) - 12 (lefthand side, 3/4 of the way down);
         - pp. 24 (lefthand side, from "So there is only ...") - 27 (lefthand side, two lines from top).
    Rest optional.
  20. Feldman, "Kant I," from his Introductory Ethics (1978).  Read up to p. 106 (1/3 of the way down) for Wed 3/31. Read the rest for Fri 4/2.
  21. McNaughton and Rawling, "Deontology," from D. Copp (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory (Oxford University Press, 2006). You can skip sections 4 and 5.2, if you wish.   [due Mon 4/5]
  22. Ross,"What Makes Right Acts Right?" from The Right and the Good (1930). Same document as #6 above. Required: pp. 16-29 (middle of page).  [due Fri 4/9]
  23. Foot, "The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect," Oxford Review 5 (1967): 5-15. [due Wed 4/14]
  24. Thomson, "Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem," The Monist 59 (1976): 204-217.  [due Fri 4/16]
  25. Greene, "An fMRI Investigation of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgment," Science 293 (2001) .  [due Wed 4/21]

 

 

Further Readings (optional)

 

On Non-Cognitivism

  1. Mark Schroeder, "What is the Frege-Geach Problem?" Philosophy Compass 3/4 (2008): 703–720.

On Subjectivism

  1. Roderick Firth, "Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 3 (1952): 317-345.
  2. David Lewis, "Dispositional Theories of Value," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes 63 (1989): 113-137.
  3. Ronald Milo, "Contractarian Constructivism," Journal of Philosophy (1995): 181-205.

On Analytic Reductionism and the Open-Question Argument

  1. excerpt from Michael Ridge, "Moral Non-Naturalism," in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, E.N. Zalta (ed.).
  2. Caj Strandberg, "In Defence of the Open Question Argument," The Journal of Ethics (2004): 179-96.

On Axiology

  1. Ross, "What Things Are Good?" from The Right and the Good (1930).

Greene, "From neural ‘is’ to moral ‘ought’: what are the moral implications of neuroscientific moral psychology?" Nature Reviews 4 (2003): 847-850.

 

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