Lecturer
Recitation Section Teachers
This course will address some elementary problems:
and
This last is the question, whether a genuinely wise person would do genuine wrong to another. The opposing immoralist view (as I will call it following Philippa Foot) is that justice is some kind of fraud that only really stupid people would fall for. This will be our theme especially at the beginning and end of the course. It is among the most difficult questions of philosophy, so our treatment will be very abbreviated!
The central part of the course will largely be devoted to figuring out what things are wrong and in particular, what things /wrong another/. All problems will presuppose that it is the life or death of the other that is at issue. When does action have the straightforward character of wronging someone that we think murdering someone has? and when might you be going wrong somehow through the death of another in other ways? - e.g. by failure of beneficence, benevolence, considerations of ‘mutal aid’ etc.
There will be little discussion of topics like ‘Is morality objective?’ ‘Is morality real?’ ‘Is morality what God told people to do once?’. It is perfectly clear that murder is real, but what exactly to count as that is surprisingly complex and disputable.
In the end, the deep question is about rationality or wisdom, why should I care whether I’m murdering someone? where’s the problem with those who are willing?
We will of manage a very preliminary development of these themes, using a mixture of classical and contemporary texts.
There will be one short paper, on Plato's Crito. There will be two in-class tests, one on preliminary structural problems in 'normative ethics', another special problems like self-defense and abortion. The final exam will be cumulative but mostly focus on Platonic Immoralists and Plato’s Republic. If time permits I would like to include a discussion of a few select passages of Kant’s (extremely difficult) Groundwork that speak to the issue of ‘treating another as an end’ and its connection to rationality/wisdom.
Many of the texts are linked below but I am slowly integrating them into courseweb. It is important to print these, and bring them to the lecture and section events. Philosophy is characterized by close attention to the precise wording of the text and especially the precise succession of sentences in argument. The readings are sometimes difficult, but the page count of the readings for this course is low, and so each work should be read carefully. Again, this is characteristic of philosophy, where the correct comprehension even of a single sentence has sometimes taken one or two millenia to resolve.
The grade will be divided equally among these five separate things (i.e. 20% each): tests (of which there are three), the written essay, and your contribution to the recitation section - how this works is up to your section leader, who may for example include short quizzes and the like
(The special writing sections will be subject to different principles due to the additional writing and Gabriel will over-rule some features; the writing practicum is independently graded.)
It is thus crucial to attend lecture and section meetings religiously. Keep in mind that the recitation leader will also be grading the papers and tests and is the fundamental authority in matters of grading especially
Thurs, Jan 20: short essay in assigned.
Tuesday FEB 17: first in class test on Anscombe, Foot, Taurek, etc.
Mar 1-3 Self Defense and ‘justification’
Mar 8-10 Spring Break
March 15-17 Abortion and ‘moral standing’
Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion” Foot, beginning and conclusion of “Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect”
Rawls et al. “The Philosopher’s Brief” (sc. to the Supreme Court.) Grisez, “When Do People Begin”
Anscombe, “Were you a Zygote?”
Tuesday MAR 22: second in class test on self-defense and abortion
Mar 24
Republic, Book I, Opening remarks up through Thrasymachus's immoralism
Mar 29-31 The other Platonic immoralists:
Apr 5-7
Return to the conclusion of book I, for the defense of Justice. If there is such a thing as rationality and knowledge how to live, justice is a part of it. Discussion of book IV doctrine of ‘parts of the psyche’, understood as arguing that there is such a thing as rationality knowledge how live.
Apr 12-4
Exam week
Final exam: SATURDAY APRIL 25 8:00 AM – 9:50 AM
Introductory reading
Structural Problems about killing: Justice, Benevolence, Consequentialism
Elizabeth Anscombe, Mr Truman’s Degree
Philippa Foot, The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect
John Taurek, Should The Numbers Count?
Elizabeth Anscombe, Who is Wronged? (a very short argument for a thesis similar to Taurek's)
Thomas Aquinas "Summa Theologiae" on self-defense
Judith Thomson "Self-Defense"
Rationality of morality: Plato's Republic
Plato, Republic, Book I (part1)
Plato, Republic, Book I (part2)
Plato, Gorgias, Speech of Callicles
Plato, Republic, Book II (skeptical arguments of Glaucon and Adiemantus)