top of page
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS
Module I: Are there moral truths? A primer in metaethics
Week 1 Introduction
​
Plato, Euthyphro
​
Week 2 God and Morality: The Euthyphro Problem
James Rachels, “Does Morality Depend Upon Religion?”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, short excerpt Rebellion
Friedrich Nietzsche, “Parable of the Madman”
Week 3 Is it All Relative? Moral Relativism and its Discontents
Mary Midgley, “Trying Out One’s New Sword”
James Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”
Plato, Ring of Gyges
Week 4 Slave of the Passions? Reason, Emotion, and Morality
David Hume, Enquiry selections
A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic Selections
Annette Baier, “What is an Emotion About?”
Sabine Döring, “Why Be Emotional?”
Module II: Utilitarianism and Other Consequentialisms
Week 5 Hedonism and Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham, Principles
J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism
Robert Nozick, “The Experience Machine”
Week 6 The 99% and the 1%: Utilitarianism and Economic Inequality
Peter Singer, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”
Marina Hyde, “If Jeff Bezos wants to help low-income people why not just pay them better?”
Jan Narveson, “Feeding the Hungry”
Week 7 Love and the Critique of Hedonism
Zadie Smith, “Joy”
Cornel West, “Nihilism in Black America”
Bernard Williams, “A Critique of Utilitarianism”
Week 8 Is Death Bad?
Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
Thomas Nagel, “Death”
Module III: Kantian Rationalism and the Ethics of Agency
Week 9 Morality as Rationality: Kantian Ethics
Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas”
Groundwork Chapters 1 & II
Christine Korsgaard, "Kant's Formula of Universal Law"
Week 10 Autonomy and Consent: Kant and Applied Ethics
Berit Brogaard, “Sex by Deception”
Michael Heumer, “Is There a Right to Own a Gun?”
Week 11 What is Evil? Rationality and the Problem of Evil
Hannah Arendt, Selections from Eichmann in Jerusalem
Kant, Selections from the Second Critique
Module IV: Suffering and the Challenge of Nihilism
Week 12 Suffering and the Ethics of Compassion
Arthur Schopenhauer, “On the Sufferings of the World”
Iris Murdoch, Selections from The Sovereignty of Good
J. Donovan, “Attention to Suffering: A Feminist Care Ethic”
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Journey to Mindfulness
Week 13 The Death of God and Nietzsche’s Challenge
Nietzsche, Genealogy, First & Second Essay
Week 14 Creating Values: Who are Nietzsche’s Free Spirits?
Nadeem Hussain, “Honest Illusion”
Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd”
bottom of page