Philosophy 115.00C: Introduction to Ethics,

Summer Term IB, 2006: MWF 2:30-4:45PM

Credit, 4 hours

last update: 8/12/2006

Prof. Steve Strange, office hours Friday 12-2PM & by appointment

Description of course

What is the nature of right and wrong, or of virtue and vice? How should we think about the question of which acts are right and which wrong? What reason do we have for choosing to do the right thing, and what type of reason can this be? These are the classic questions of ethics. We will investigate them through representative writings of some of the greatest thinkers about ethics in the Western tradition: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and J.S. Mill.

Texts

Plato, Gorgias, ed. Zeyl

Plato, Protagoras, ed. Lombardo/Bell/Frede

Selection from Plato, Theaetetus (online reserve)

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, ed. Ross/Ackrill/Urmson

Epictetus, Handbook, ed. White

Musonius Rufus, selected fragments, ed. Lutz (online reserve)

Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, ed. Ellington

Mill, Utilitarianism, ed. Sher

Requirements & Grading
All assigned work must be submitted in order to pass the course. Your final course grade will be based on the following factors:

• (A) Class attendance and participation (10% of the final course grade)
• (B) Four weekly quizzes (36%; lowest grade dropped)
• (C) A short writing assignment (22% of the course grade)
• (D) Final take home examination (32% of the course grade)

Your responsibilities: Exams must be taken at scheduled times and all other work must be submitted on time unless permission is granted in advance by the instructor. All work submitted must be your own and prepared specifically for this course, except for quotations and citations of primary texts or secondary material, all of which must be acknowledged. Use (that is, quotation or paraphrase) of others' work, or your own work from other courses, without proper acknowledgment, constitutes a violation of the Emory College Honor Code.

Cellphones, pagers and other communications devices must be KEPT OFF at all times.

Schedule of Class Meetings, Readings, and Assignments
Assigned material should be read before coming to class.

Week 1 Plato, Gorgias & Protagoras (5-12 July)

• Topics: eudaimonism, moral education, society and justice, virtue, the care of the soul, the rejection of hedonism, realism vs. relativism

In-Class Quiz 1: Friday 14 July

Week 2 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I-III.5 (excluding I.6), V, VII.1-3, X.6-8 (14-19 July)

• Topics: happiness & human nature, virtue and emotion, responsibility and choice, justice, weakness of will, the active vs. the contemplative life

In-Class Quiz 2: Friday 21 July

Week 3 Epictetus. Handbook, Musonius Rufus fragments 2-4, 12-15, 21 (21-26 July)

• Topics: rational self-sufficiency, fate and providence, indifference to externals, passionlessness, cosmopolitanism, natural law/right

Essay assigned Saturday 22 July, due online Sunday 30 July

In-Class Quiz 3: Friday 28 July

Week 4 Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (28 July-2 August))

• Topics: duty & deontology, practical reason and categorical imperatives, respect, the will and autonomy

In-Class Quiz 4: Friday 4 August

Week 5 Mill, Utilitarianism (4-9 August)

• Topics: consequentialism, philosophical hedonism, egoism vs. altruism, the principle of utility, justice and rights

In-Class Quiz 4: Friday 4 August

Final exam assigned Monday 7 August, due online Saturday 12 August