Philosophy 3100 - Ethical Theory (honors)

Additional Required 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 Wed 2/17]
  9. Feldman, "What is Act Utilitarianism?" from his Introductory Ethics (1978).  [due Wed 2/17]
  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 Fri 2/19]
  11. Nielsen, "Against Moral Conservativism," Ethics 82 (1972): 219-231. Section III optional, but recommended.     [due Mon 2/22]
  12. Feldman, "Problems for Act Utilitarianism," from his Introductory Ethics (1978). Required pp. 52-60. Rest optional.  [due Mon 2/22]
  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 2/22]
  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 2/24]
  15. Parfit, "What Makes Someone's Life Go Best?" from Reasons and Persons (1984). Section J not required.    [due Wed 2/24]
  16. Nozick, "The Experience Machine," from Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974).    [due Mon 3/1]
  17. Kraut, "Desire and the Human Good," Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 68 (1994): 39–54.  [due Mon 3/1]
  18. Ross, "What Things Are Good?" from The Right and the Good (1930).   [due Mon 3/1]
  19. Norcross, "Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases," Philosophical Perspectives 18 (2004): 229-245. Read pp. 229-236; rest optional.   [due Wed 3/10 ]
  20. Kant, excerpts from Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals (1785), from the version by presented by Jonathan Bennett at www.earlymoderntexts.com.    [due Fri 3/12 ]  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).
  21. Feldman, "Kant I," from his Introductory Ethics (1978).  Read up to p. 106 (1/3 of the way down) for Fri 3/12. Read the rest for Mon 3/15.
  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 Wed 3/17]
  23. 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 Wed 3/31]
  24. Foot, "The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect," Oxford Review 5 (1967): 5-15. [due Mon 4/5]
  25. Thomson, "Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem," The Monist 59 (1976): 204-217.  [due Fri 4/9]
  26. Green, "From neural ‘is’ to moral ‘ought’: what are the moral implications of neuroscientific moral psychology?" Nature Reviews 4 (2003): 847-850.  [due Mon 4/12]

 

 

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.

 

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