Download introduction

Philosophy 241
Introductory Ethics
Julius Sensat
Roy Blumenfeld
Procedures and requirements


syllabus
schedule
Content overview



What is moral philosophy?
Three approaches
Social justice
What is moral philosophy?


Broad sense: reflective examination of ways of
living (Socrates)
Narrow sense
–
3 basic concepts:



–
The right
The good
Moral worth
Two questions


Moral judgment
Moral motivation
3 basic concepts



The right: right vs. wrong action, justice and
injustice in institutions
The good: Which ends should we pursue?
Moral worth: What makes a person morally
good?
Two questions


Nature of moral judgment: How are the
concepts to be applied, and in what sense if
any are they objective?
Nature of moral motivation: How is it possible
for these concepts to motivate us in action?
Three approaches



Ethical rationalism (Plato’s Republic, John
Locke)
Ideal spectator approach (Hume, Mill and
utilitarianism)
Contractualism (Kant, Rawls)
Ethical rationalism
Morality is a body of knowledge about an
independent reality. Moral principles are
true statements about values that are fixed
in the nature of things and knowable by
human reason.
Ideal spectator approach
Moral claims are not factual
claims at all, but expressions of
attitudes of approval or
disapproval.
Contractualism
The correct moral principles are the ones that would
be adopted in an ideal agreement. They are not
factual claims or expressions of attitude, but rather
rules that everyone could reasonably agree to live by.
Social justice


The problem: moral assessment of society’s
basic institutions
Rationalism:
–
–


Justice in Plato’s Republic
Lockean libertarianism
Ideal spectator approach: utilitarianism
Contractualism: Rawls’s justice as fairness
First topic


Socrates’s defense of reasoned justification
Text for next time: Plato’s Euthyphro, in The
Trial and Death of Socrates