Several readings are from the two course textbooks, abbreviated as follows in the table below:
DMI = Timmons, Mark, ed. Disputed Moral Issues: A Reader. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195177633.
TWP = Bedau, Hugo. Thinking and Writing About Philosophy. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002. ISBN: 9780312396534.
| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction |
TWP, read pp. vii-ix and chapter 1. Chapter 2 recommended but not required. Read chapter 1, pp. 1-6, in DMI. |
| I. Value and the good life | ||
| 2 | Hedonism |
Bentham, Jeremy. "Classic Hedonism." In Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender in Applied Ethics. Edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002, pp. 42. ISBN: 9780072840759. Nozick, Robert. "The Experience Machine." In Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender In Applied Ethics. Edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002, pp. 45. ISBN: 9780072840759. |
| 3 | Desire satisfaction and the good |
Brandt, Richard B. "Goodness as the Satisfaction of Informed Desire." In A Theory of the Good and the Right. Revised ed. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998. ISBN: 9781573922203. TWP, read chapter 3. |
| 4 | Objective goods |
Kraut, Richard. "Desire and the Human Good." Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 68, no. 2 (1994): 39-54. RecommendedNussbaum, Martha. "A Conception of the Human Being." Chapter 1 in Sex and Social Justice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780195110326. Skip sections I, II, and VII. |
| 5 | Immortality |
Williams, Bernard. "The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality." Chapter 6 in Problems of the Self. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 82-100. ISBN: 9780521290609. TWP, chapter 5. Chapter 4 recommended but not required. |
| 6 | Three moral theories |
DMI, Introduction sections 2A (pp. 6-11), 2C (pp. 15-20), 2E (pp. 23-24). RecommendedSayre-McCord, Geoffrey. "Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Very Brief Selective Summary of Sections I and II." University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000. (PDF) |
| 7 | Film: "The Global Banquet: Politics of Food" | |
| 8 | Film: "Skin Deep" | |
| II. The moral community | ||
| 9 | Animal rights |
Singer, Peter. "All Animals Are Equal." DMI, pp. 477. Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place." The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2002. |
| 10 | Consuming animals |
Cohen, Carl. "In Defense of Speciesism." DMI, pp. 485. Wenz, Peter. "An Ecological Argument for Vegetarianism." Ethics and Animals, no. 5 (1984). |
| 11 | The value of nature |
Baxter, William. "People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution." DMI, pp. 513. Leopold, Aldo. "The Land Ethic." DMI, pp. 517. |
| 12 | Environmentalism |
Taylor, Paul W. "The Ethics of Respect for Nature." DMI, pp. 522. Thomson, Janna. "A Refutation of Environmental Ethics." DMI, pp. 533. RecommendedHill Jr., Thomas E. "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving the Natural Environment." DMI, pp. 542. |
| III. Obligations to others | ||
A. Global justice | ||
| 13 | The distant needy |
Hardin, Garrett. "Lifeboat Ethics." DMI, pp. 447. Singer, Peter. "Famine, Affluence and Morality." DMI, pp. 452. |
| 14 | Famine relief | O'Neill, Onora. "A Kantian Approach to World Hunger." DMI, pp. 467. |
| 15 | Addressing structural injustice |
Pogge, Thomas. "Eradicating Systematic Poverty: Brief for a Global Resources Dividend." Journal of Human Development 2, no. 1 (2001): 59-77. ( RecommendedCrocker, David. "Hunger, Capacity and Development." Chapter 58 in Ethics in Practice. 2nd ed. Edited by Hugh LaFollette. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 9780631228349. |
B. Racism, sexism and speech | ||
| 16 | Racism: attitudes and structures |
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "Racisms." Chapter 1 in Anatomy of Racism. Edited by David Theo Goldberg. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780816618040. Frye, Marilyn. "Oppression." In The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1983, pp. 1-15. ISBN: 9780895940995. RecommendedFrye, Marilyn. "Sexism." In The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1983, pp. 17-40. ISBN: 9780895940995. |
| 17 |
Affirmative action Guest lecture: Adam Hosein, MIT Linguistics and Philosophy |
Pojman, Louis P. "Why Affirmative Action is Immoral." DMI, pp. 218. Hill Jr., Thomas. "The Message of Affirmative Action." DMI, pp. 227. |
| 18 | Racist speech | Phillips, Michael. "Racist Acts and Racist Humor." DMI, pp. 196. |
| 19 | Hate speech |
Lawrence III, Charles R. "Racist Speech as the Functional Equivalent of Fighting Words." DMI, pp. 121. Arthur, John. "Sticks and Stones." DMI, pp. 125. |
| 20 | Free speech and pornography |
The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography. "Pornography and Harm." DMI, pp. 92. Dworkin, Ronald. "Liberty and Pornography." DMI, pp. 107. RecommendedMill, John Stuart. "On Liberty." London, UK: Longman, Roberts & Green, 1869. |
| 21 | Pornography and equality |
Hill, Judith. "Pornography and Degradation." DMI, pp. 113. Garry, Ann. "Sex, Lies and Pornography." Chapter 35 In Ethics in Practice. 2nd ed. Edited by Hugh LaFollette. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 9780631228349. |
C. Sexual morality and marriage | ||
| 22 | Film: "Tying the Knot" |
Human Rights Campaign. "Massachusetts Marriage Decision Questions and Answers." RecommendedGoodridge, et al. Department of Public Health. |
| 23 | Sexual morality |
"Vatican Declaration on Some Questions of Sexual Ethics." DMI, pp. 41. Punzo, Vincent C. "Morality and Human Sexuality." Chapter 24 in Ethics in Practice. 2nd ed. Edited by Hugh LaFollette. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 9780631228349. RecommendedWest, Robin. "Sex, Law and Consent." Georgetown Law. Georgetown Law Faculty Working Papers. Paper 71, July 23, 2008. Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Contra Gentiles . Book 3: 122. |
| 24 | Homosexuality |
Corvino, John. "Why Shouldn't Tommy and Jim Have Sex? A Defense of Homosexuality." DMI, pp. 68. Lloyd, Elisabeth. "Pre-theoretical Assumptions in Evolutionary Explanations of Female Sexuality." Philosophical Studies 69 (1993): 139-153. |
| 25 | Gay and lesbian marriage | Calhoun, Cheshire. "Defending Marriage." Chapter 5 in Feminism, Family and the Politics of the Closet: Lesbian and Gay Displacement. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780199257669. |
| 26 | Final lecture, exam questions distributed | |
Additional Recommended Readings
Annas, Julia. "Virtue Ethics." Chapter 18 in The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory. Edited by David Copp. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780195325911.
Harris, Luke Charles, and Uma Narayan. "Affirmative Action as Equalizing Opportunity: Challenging the Myth of "Preferential Treatment." Chapter 46 in Ethics in Practice. 2nd ed. Edited by Hugh LaFollette. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 9780631228349.
Loeb, Don. "Full Information Theories of the Individual Good." Social Theory and Practice 21, no. 1 (1995): 637-658.
Ezorsky, Gertrude. "Overt and Institutional Racism." Chapter 1 in Racism and Justice: The Case for Affirmative Action. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780801499227.
West, Robin. "The Harms of Consensual Sex." The American Philosophical Association Newsletters 94, no. 2 (1995): 52-55.
Bittman, Mark. "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler." The New York Times, January 27, 2008.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. "Moral Relativism." Look especially at section 2.
Mill, John Stuart. "Utilitarianism." In Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender in Applied Ethics. Edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002, pp. 47. ISBN: 9780072840759.
Kant, Immanuel. "The Categorical Imperative." In Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender in Applied Ethics. Edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002, pp. 51. ISBN: 9780072840759.
Aristotle. "Virtue Ethics." In Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender in Applied Ethics. Edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002, pp. 60. ISBN: 9780072840759.
Lakoff, George. "What's in a Word? Plenty, if it's "Marriage." Rockridge Institute, July 22, 2005.
Card, Claudia. "Why Gays Shouldn't Marry." The Little Magazine, vol. 2, no. 3, "Belonging."