Lecture Notes

These lecture handouts were used to supplement class discussion.

SES # TOPICS HANDOUTS
1 Introduction  
Part I: Meta-ethics
Non-naturalism
2 Plato's dialogue and the "Euthyphro Problem" (PDF)
3 Moore on goodness as simple and indefinable (PDF)
Non-cognitivism
4 Ayer on the emotive theory of ethics (PDF)
5 Brink on the form and content of moral judgments (PDF)
The epistemic problem for cognitivism
6 Harman on ethics and observation (PDF)
7 Sturgeon on moral explanations (PDF)
Moral relativism
8 Harman on moral relativism (PDF)
9 Foot on moral relativism (PDF)
10 Lyons on ethical relativism and the problem of incoherence (PDF)
Part II: Normative ethics
Goodness
11 Mill on utilitarianism (PDF)
12 Nozick and Parfit on theories of well-being (PDF)
13 Norcross on comparing harms (PDF)
Rightness
14 Williams critiquing utilitarianism (PDF)
15 Lenman on consequentialism and cluelessness (PDF)
16 Singer on act-utilitarianism (PDF)
17 Rawls on rules (PDF)
18 Nagel on agent-relative reasons (PDF)
Distributive justice
19 Rawls and Nagel on equality (PDF)
20 Williams on the idea of equality (PDF)
21 Singer on famine, affluence, and morality (PDF)
Part III: Moral character
Virtue
22 Arpaly on moral worth (PDF)
23 Wolf on moral saints (PDF)
Free will and moral responsibility
24 van Inwagen on the incompatibility of free will and determinism (PDF)
25 Frankfurt on moral responsibility (PDF)
26 Nagel on moral luck (PDF)