MORAL PHILOSOPHY    
 SPRING 2019                                   


Lectures take place Mondays from 10-11am in 2/1083
and Fridays from 9-11am in 2A/2063

OVERVIEW

Moral philosophy studies the principles that lie behind common-sense moral judgments like
‘human trafficking is wrong’ and ‘it is right to help people in need’.  In its most ambitious
form, it seeks a more fundamental and unified justification of these common-sense principles
and judgments.  This module examines moral philosophy in two stages.  In the first stage, we will
consider the negative side of morality—i.e., the part that prohibits or discourages certain acts
and ways of relating to others.  We will begin by considering the wrongness of killing and lesser
forms of harming.  As we will see, prohibitions against harming are harder to explicate than one
might have might expected.  We will hence need to think about whether they need to be derived
from more fundamental principles that would simultaneously exclude other kinds of wrong acts. 
In this connection, we will look at how to best understand some other serious wrongs—e.g.,
exploitation and oppression.  In seeking a more fundamental and systematic explanation of
these wrongs, we will focus on Kantian ethics, and especially its principle that persons are to
be valued as ends in themselves, never merely as means.  But utilitarianism will also appear as a foil.
 
In the second half of the module, we turn to consider the positive side of morality—i.e., the
part that requires or encourages certain acts and ways of relating to others.  We will transition
into this part of the module by thinking about whether Kantian ethics generates any significant
positive requirements, such as requirements to feed starving people.  Here we will also mull
the relationship between Kantian and rule-utilitarian thinking.  Having examined the limits of
Kantian positivity, we will consider whether the ideal of respect should be supplemented or replaced
with an ideal of care.   After considering the virtues of this approach—'care ethics’—we will
investigate whether it might prove oppressive, as some of its critics have argued.  In seeking to
address this concern, we will reflect on whether the Enlightenment conception of personhood
that lies behind both Kantian ethics and the objections to care ethics might be usefully replaced
by a non-Western, communitarian conception.  We will end by considering whether moral philosophy
even in the narrow sense should be intrinsically concerned with more than just persons,
and how we might formulate a non-consequentialist environmental ethics.


SCHEDULE OF READINGS

The readings divide into required, strongly recommended,
and optional further readings.  I include the optional readings
just in case you find the topic especially interesting or would like
to write a paper on nearby issues.

Required readings are available for registered students on this
password-protected page.  Most of the optional further readings
can be found for free online or through the university library.


Part 1.  Negative Morality

Week 1: The Wrongness of Killing and the Badness of Death

Required reading
            McMahan, J.  ‘Killing and Equality’
 
            Further reading
            Hanser, M.  ‘The Wrongness of Killing and the Badness of Death’
            Jaworska, A. and Tannenbaum, J.  ‘The Grounds of Moral Status’
Kittay, E. F.  ‘At the Margins of Moral Personhood’
McMahan, J.  ‘Death and the Value of Life’
McMahan, J.  The Ethics of Killing, Chapter 3.
Nagel, T.  ‘Death’

Week 2: The Trolley Problem

Required reading​ 
Thomson, J.  ‘The Trolley Problem’
Thomson, J.  ‘Turning the Trolley’
 
Strongly recommended reading
Kamm, F.  ‘The Doctrine of Triple Effect and Why a Rational
Agent Need Not Intend the Means to His End’

Further reading
Foot, P.  ‘The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect.’
McMahan, J.  ‘Intention, Permissibility, Terrorism, and Just War.’ 
Quinn, W.  ‘Actions, Intentions, and Consequences: The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing.’ 
Woollard, F.  ‘If This Is My Body… A Defense of the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing.’
Woollard, F.  ‘The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing, Part 2.’ 

Week 3: Further Case Studies in Negative Morality - Exploitation

Required reading
            Sample, R.  Exploitation, Chapter 3.
 
Strongly recommended reading
Sample, R.  Exploitation, Chapters 1-2.
Zwolinski, M. and Wertheimer, A. ‘Exploitation’
 
Further reading
Arneson, R.  ‘What’s Wrong with Exploitation?’
Snyder, J.  ‘Exploitation and Sweatshop Labor’
Valdman, M.  ‘A Theory of Wrongful Exploitation’
Wood, A.  ‘Exploitation’
Wertheimer, A.  Exploitation.

Week 4: Further Case Studies in Negative Morality - Slavery and Human Trafficking
 
Required reading
Lawson, B.  ‘Oppression and Slavery’
Khan, A.  ‘Modern Slavery in the UK’ in the Guardian
 
Further reading
Cudd, A.  Analyzing Oppression
Davis, A.  ‘Unfinished Lecture on Liberation’
Douglass, F.  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.  ARCHIVE.ORG
Hare, R. M.  ‘What is Wrong with Slavery?’
Jacobs, H. A.  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.   ARCHIVE.ORG
McGary, H. and Lawson, B.  Between Slavery and Freedom.
Rosen, F.  ‘Jeremy Bentham on Slavery and the Slave Trade’
Sundstrom, R.  ‘Frederick Douglass’  SEP

Week 5: Further Case Studies in Negative Morality - Colonialism

Required reading
Fanon, F.  'On Violence'
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on colonialism   SEP

Recommended listening and viewing
Philosophy Talk ​on Frantz Fanon  LINK
YouTube talk from Vivek Chibber   LINK

Further reading
Chibber, V.  Postcolonial Theory and the Spectre of Capital
Flikschuh and Ypi (eds.) Kant and Colonialism
Habibi, D.  'The Moral Dimensions of J. S. Mill's Colonialism'
Said, E.  Orientalism
 Spivak, G.  'Can the Subaltern Speak?'
Schultz and Varouxakis (eds.) Utilitarianism and Empire
Stilz, A.  'Decolonization and Self-Determination'
Valentini, L.  'On the Distinctive Procedural Wrong of Colonialism'
Ypi, L.  'What's Wrong with Colonialism'

Week 6: The Kantian Unification of Negative Morality, Part 1
 
Required reading
Kant, I.  Selections from Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
 
            Further reading
            Wood, A.  Chapters 3-5 of Kant’s Ethical Thought.
            Wood, A.  ‘The Supreme Principle of Morality’
 
Week 7: The Kantian Unification of Negative Morality, Part 2
 
Required reading
Kant, I.  Selections from Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
 
Strongly recommended reading
Kant, I.  Selections from Perpetual Peace
 
            Further reading
Kamm, F.  ‘Non-Consequentialism'
 Parfit, D.  ‘Possible Consent’
    Wood, A.  ‘Marx and Kant on Exploitation.’

Part 2. Positive Morality
                   
Week 8: The Positive Requirements of Dignity
 
            Required reading
Kant, I.  Selections from The Metaphysics of Morals
           
            Strongly recommended reading
            The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially Articles 22-28
FDR’s ‘Four Freedoms’ speech
Interview with S. Matthew Liao about whether there is a right to be loved
 
            Further reading
Fabre, C.  Chapters 1 and 2 of Social Rights under the Constitution.
Guyer, P.  Selection from commentary on Groundwork.
            Herman, B.  ‘Mutual Aid and Respect for Persons’
            Kahn, S.  ‘Can Positive Duties be Derived from Kant’s Formula of Universal Law?’
            Korsgaard, C.  ‘Kant’s Analysis of Obligation’
            Liao, S. Matthew.  The Right to be Loved.
Wood, A.  Selection from Kant’s Ethical Thought.
 
Week 9: Care Ethics
 
Required reading
Noddings, N.  ‘Caring’
            Benhabib, S.  ‘The Generalized and the Concrete Other’

Recommended further reading
Card, C.  ‘Caring and Evil’
Friedman, M.  ‘Beyond Caring’
 
Further reading
Baier, A.  ‘The Need for More than Justice.’
Card, C.  ‘Gender and Moral Luck’
Darwall, S.  Selections from Welfare and Rational Care.
Gilligan, C.  ‘Moral Orientation and Moral Development’
Held, V.  Selections from The Ethics of Care.
Held, V.  ‘Justice and Utility: Who Cares?’
  Sander-Staudt, M.  ‘Care Ethics’, Section 3

Week 10:  Persons and Communities: Beyond Individualist Notions of Personhood?
 
Required reading/listening
Gyekye, K.  ‘Person and Community in African Thought’
History of Philosophy without Gaps podcasts on traditional
African ideas of personhood and ubuntu.
 
            Strongly recommended reading/viewing
Gyekye, K.  ‘African Ethics’
Vest, J. L.  YouTube lecture on the Akan concept of a person.
Wingo, A.  ‘Akan Philosophy of the Person’
Wiredu, K.  ‘The Moral Foundation of an African Culture’
 
Further reading
Bell, D.  ‘Communitarianism’
Menkiti, I.  'Person and Community in Traditional African Thought'
Metz, T.  ‘Toward an African Moral Theory’
Mnyaka, M. and Motlhabi, M.  ‘The African Concept of Ubuntu/Botho and its Socio-Moral Significance.’
            Wiredu, K.  ‘Moral Foundations of an African Culture’
 
Week 11:  Persons, Animals, and Environments: Beyond Anthropocentric Notions of Dignity?
 
Required reading
Routley, R.  ‘Is There Need for a New, an Environmental, Ethic?’
 
Further reading/viewing
Brennan, A.  ‘The Moral Standing of Natural Objects’
O’Neill, J.  ‘The Varieties of Intrinsic Value’
Sylvan, R.  ‘Moral Matters Matter—Environmentally?’
Sylvan, R.  ‘Against Deep Ecology’
Section 3.1 of Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Environmental Ethics
YouTube documentary about founder of deep ecology, Arne Næss.