Spinoza, Ya Cancelled
05/24/2021
1632 -
Exiled and Cancelled from his Amsterdam Jewish home
Philosophical Ethics
Philosophical Ethics
Syllabus
Take a sneak peek at a sample syllabus: Syllabus Fall 2021
Philosophy of Ethics Introduces students to a critical examination of philosophical principles related to moral action and political values.
- What is the right thing to do?
- What should a good person be like?
- More generally, what determines what is right and wrong, good and bad, virtuous and vicious?
In this course, we will consider three greatly influential moral theories - Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics. This course will begin by considering a few challenges to a reason-based morality: 1) Ethics - it is all relative, 2) Is morality determined by religion and not reason, and 3) How can ethical theories solve contemporary issues.
We will do this by evaluating three traditional moral perspectives: 1) Kantian morality (It is all about doing your duty), 2) Utilitarian morality (It is all about maximizing utility) and 3) Aristotelian morality (It is all about being virtuous) to see if one of them is better than the others.
Once we have examined these ethical theories, we will turn towards modern contemporary issues and see how they fit in relation to the ethical theories. We finally go on to apply that morality to the solution of a number of following problems: (but not limited to) Abortion and Euthanasia, Human Enhancement, Gay and Lesbian Rights, Animal Liberation and Environmental Justice, Punishment and Responsibility, or War, Torture and Terrorism.
Laughing in the Face of the Will
05/08/2021
"We laugh at him who steps out of his room at the moment when the sun rises and then says: "I will that the sun shall rise";
Aristotle, Ride or Die
04/14/2021
Forty best TV friends duos ranked showcased a list of fictional ride-or-die buddies; no doubt a fun trip down memory lane, but little did they know Aristotle set their stage for them 2000 years ago!