Ethics: from Ancient to Modern

Description

This course will take students through ethical discourse from the time of Plato to Aristotle, then to Kant and utilitarians. The principal aim of this course is to make students aware of the different traditions or approaches to ethics. Students can then be able to compare some of the most influential ethical theorists in human history.

Objectives

1. To introduce students to various ethical theories
2. To take students through some of the most influential ethical theories
3. To take students through some criticisms of these major theories

Table of contents

1. Plato: Euthyphro
2. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics
3. Aristotle on Eudaimonia
4. The emotional structure of Aristotelian virtue
5. Consequences for Ethical Theory
6. Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics
7. From Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
8. Kant: A short history of Ethics
9. On the Putative Apriority of Judgments of Taste
10. Of the Principle of Utility
11. Of what sort of Proof the Principle of Utility is Susceptible
12. Criticism of Mill's "Proof"
13. Utilitarianism and Commonsense Morality
14. Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism
15. Utilitarianism and Moral Self-iIdulgence