Ridiculously, this course is supposed to cover the History of Moral Theory from Socrates on up to the 20th Century (the 20th century having a course unto itself).   This is a Crime Against History and Philosophy. Yet it may be a crime worth committing since it will give you at least a passing acquaintance with (and preferably an undying appreciations of) what are arguably the most important and influential writings on moral theory.  I will do the best I can, and will trust you to do the same, to make the classes stimulating, provocative, and productive.  Needless to say, we can't possibly give the material the sort of detailed, painstaking, attention it deserves. Still, I'll do my best -- if only by ignoring great masses of material that deserve our close attention.  The hope is that you'll see just how much the people we'll be reading (as well as people writing nowadays) are working within a rich tradition.

TEXTS:
 

Plato's Republic (Hackett Publishing's edition, translated and edited by G.M.A. Grube and revised by CDC Reeve)

Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics (Hackett Publishing's edition, translated and edited by Terence Irwin)

Butler's Five Sermons (Hackett Publishing's edition, edited by S. Darwall)

Hume's Treatise Concerning Human Nature (Oxford University Press edition)

Kant's Ethical Philosophy (Hackett Publishing's edition)

Mill's Utilitarianism (Hackett Publishing's edition)

ASSIGNMENTS:
 

(i) Two pages of writing each week, typed.  They will be due on each Monday. The particular assignments will vary from week to week.  About half the time the assignment will be simply to provide a clear synopsis of some argument or line of thought.  Other times you'll be charged with writing about something, anything, philosophically interesting that has its source in the reading for that week: you may clarify an opaque argument, raise a problem, contrast two plausible interpretations... Still other times, particular assignments will come out of class discussion.

(ii) You should, of course, come to class prepared to talk and contribute to the discussion of the material.  The papers you've written will frequently provide the starting points for discussion in class -- often by way of my asking you to present the material you wrote about.

(iii) A seminar paper, about 15 pages long, due at the end of the semester, with a draft due three weeks earlier.

(iv) Comments on a classmate's paper, due two weeks before the end of the semester.

September:

Plato's Republic

Plato's Republic [pp. 29-46, 80-109, 193-238]

Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics [Bks I, II and III]

Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics [Bks III and VII]
 

October:
 

Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics [bks V and VIII]

Butler's Five Sermons/Hume's Treatise

Hume's Treatise

Hume's Treatise

Mill's Utilitarianism
 

November
 

Mill's Utilitarianism

Kant's Groundwork

Kant's Groundwork
 

December
 

Kant's Groundwork/Metaphysical Elements of Virtue

 
Reading on reserve in the library:

T. Hobbes' Leviathan

D. Hume's Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

F. Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil

F. Nietzsche's The Geneology of Morals

H. Sidgwick's The Methods of Ethics

T. Irwin's Plato's Moral Theory

J. Cooper's Reason and the Human Good in Aristotle

D. Gauthier's The Logic of Leviathan

J. Hampton's Hobbes

C. Pateman's The Sexual Contract

J. Mackie's Hume's Moral Theory

O. Nell's Acting On Principle

various papers available in the department