Greg Detre
Monday, 01 October, 2001
1.
'Reason is,
and ought only to be, the slave of the passions' (HUME). Would it follow from
this that morality is irrational?
2.
'Nothing in
the world can possibly be conceived which could be called good without
qualification except a good will' (KANT).
Elucidate and discuss.
3.
Is Kant right
that we may never treat humanity simply as a means?
4.
In what sense,
if any, is consequentialism alienating?
5.
How might a
deontologist explain why it is wrong for me to kill another person, even if
that is the only way to prevent two or more killings by others?
6.
'I am not
ultimately responsible for what I am. So how can I be responsible for what I
do?' Discuss.
7.
How should
someone who believes in human rights decide what humans have rights to?
8.
Is the fact
that people's moral judgements motivate them a problem for believers in moral
objectivity?
9.
Does the
notion of 'moral intuition' have a place in ethical theory?
10. What role does pleasure play in well-being?
11. 'Equality matters.' 'We should give priority
to the worse off.' 'We should be compassionate.' Compare and contrast these
views.
12. 'Man would like to be an egoist but cannot.
This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of
his greatness' (SIMONE WEIL). Discuss.
13. What is the point of repentance?
14. In what ways is morality relative?
15. Who is better - the moral saint, or the
moral hero?
16. 'The considerations to which a virtuous
person is sensitive are more fundamental than the virtues themselves.' Is this
true? If so, is the project of 'virtue ethics' doomed?
17. In what sense, if any, is human life 'sacred'?
virtue theory
free will
amoralism + moral facts
consequentialism
Williams � Ethics and the limits of philosophy
Singer � Companion to Ethics
�� when an amoralist �
suggests that there is no reason to follow the requirements of morality, what
can we say to him?� (Williams) What can we say?
What do emotivists get
right?
Are there any moral
facts?
John McDowell � �Values and Secondary qualities� in Honderich (ed) �Morality and Objectivity�
Simon Blackburn � �Spreading the word�, ch 6
David McNaughton
Gilbert Harman
David Wiggins
Thomas Nagel � �View from Nowhere;, ch 8
John Mackie � �Ethics�, ch 1
Does any form of
consequentialism escape fatal criticism?
John Stuart Mill � Utilitarianism
David Ross � The Right and the Good, ch 2
Samuel Scheffler
Jonathan Dancy � Moral Reasons, ch 13
Derek Parfit � Reasons and Persons, sections 10-18, 24-29
Peter Singer
Does Kant satisfactorily explain why we should not make
false promises?
Kant � Groundwork ch 1 + 2
Onora Nell (O�Neill) � Acting on Principle ch 5
Onora O�Neill � �Kant�s ethics� in Companion to ethics, Singer (ed)
Bernard Williams � Ethics and the limits of philosophy, ch 4
What role should the notion of �virtue� play in ethics?
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, book 1 ch 7, book 2
Roger Crisp, �Modern moral
philosophy and the virtues�, in Crisp (ed) How should one live?
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, chs 5, 15
Roger Crisp and Michael Slote (eds)
Virtue ethics
Elizabeth Anscombe, �Modern moral philosophy�, Philosophy 1958
Philippa Foot, �Virtues and vices� in Virtues and vices, or ch 1
Rosalind Hursthouse, in Virtue ethics (eds Crisp and Slote)
If determinism is true, can anyone be held morally
responsible?
Inwagen, �Incompatability of free will� in Watson (ed), Free Will
Strawson, �Freedom and resentment�