Philosophy 241

Introductory Ethics

Julius Sensat

Meica Magnani

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