Ethics and Applied Ethics - PH19B
Weekly schedule of tutorial sessions
The aims here are to introduce you to some of the major figures in the history of the subject or to provide provocative discussions of issues relevant to the lecture topics. The intention is that you should understand the text and begin to have a reasoned response to it.
1. Introduction
The beginning of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. The link here is to a version of Book 1 copied from Columbia University's ILT site. It is pleasant to read on screen but wasteful if you wish to print it. For a more basic version for printing, click here.
In the actual tutorial we shall only be looking at a few paragraphs from this book; they are posted here. But you may find it illuminating to see them in context.
For summary of issues, see here.
2. Suicide and euthanasia
Hume "Of Suicide", in Singer (ed.) Applied Ethics, 19-27. The text is on the Web together with some other material at James Fieser's site.
For summary of issues, see here.
3. Grounds of morality: divine commands
P.T. Geach, "The Moral Law and the Law of God"; Norman Kretzmann, "Abraham, Isaac, and Euthyphro: God and the Basis of Morality".
I want you to read both these articles, though we won't try to deal with everything in them in the tutorial itself. The story of Abraham and Isaac that Kretzmann uses was the basis also of a very famous work by the 19th century Danish thinker, Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling. I have not found a complete text on the Web, but part of it - including his variations on the Abraham/Isaac story, can be found here.
For summary of issues, see here.
4. Sex, natural and "unnatural"
The tutorial will look at Tom Nagel's essay "Sexual Perversion".
For summary of issues, see here.
5. Grounds of morality: social requirements
J.L. Mackie, "Co-operation, Competition, and Moral Philosophy". This builds on the position Mackie argues for in the course book and explores what sociobiology can teach us about morality.
For summary of issues, see here.
6. Contraception and abortion
The text for consideration here is Miss Anscombe on contraception, with some comments.
For summary of the issues, see here.
7. Systematising morality: Kantianism
Kant on the categorical imperative: The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. This link is to the complete (177K) text. Extracts for the tutorial discussion are now posted here. They are Kant's examples of maxims allegedly failing the Categorical Imperative test.
For summary of issues, see here.
8. Partiality: family, nation, species
Francis Schrag, "The Child in the Moral Order". We might also look at Midgley and Hughes, "Trouble with Families?" in Almond (ed.) Introducing Applied Ethics, ch. 1.
For summary of issues, see here.
9. Systematising morality: Utilitarianism
John Harris, "The Survival Lottery", in Singer (ed.) Applied Ethics, 87-95.
For summary of issues, see here.
10. Population policy
Parfit, "Overpopulatoin and the Quality of Life", and Pascal, "Judgment Day", both in Singer (ed.), chs. 10 and 8 respectively.
For summary of issues, see here.
11. Poverty
Jennifer Trusted, "Rich and Poor", in Almond (ed.) Introducing Applied Ethics, ch. 19.
For summary of issues, see here.
12. Capital punishment
Glover on Capital Punishment (Causing Death and Saving Life, ch. 18). There is also a relevant discussion by David Cockburn, "Capital Punishment and Realism" that I would like you to consider.
For summary of issues, see here.
29 August 2000, last revised 25 October 2001
© E.P. Brandon, 2001