PLEASE NOTE this is a sample reading list for the 2013-14 academic year – precise seminar content
may change from year to year.
Detailed Reading List
Week 1: Moral Reasons
Core reading:
Smith, Michael. 1994. The Moral Problem. Malden: Blackwell, chapter 1 (pdf-file).
Supplementary readings:
Korsgaard, Christine. 1996. “Skepticism about Practical Reason.” In KorsgaardCreating the
Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Markovits, Julia. 2010. “Internal Reasons and the Motivating Intuition.” In Brady (ed.) New Waves
in Meta-Ethics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (available on her academia page).
Svavarsdottir, Sigrun. 1999. “Moral Cognitivism and Motivation.” Philosophical Review 108: 161–
219.
Williams, Bernard. 1981. “Internal and External Reasons.” In Williams Moral Luck: Philosophical
Papers 1973-1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Week 2: Hume’s Moral Philosophy
Core reading:
Hume, David. 1978 [1739]. A Treatise of Human Nature. 2nd Edition; L. A. Selby-Bigge and P.H.
Nidditch (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, Book II, Part III, Section III; Book III, Part I, Section II;
Part II, Sections I and II, Part III, Sections I and VI.
Supplementary readings:
Baier, Annette. 1991. A Progress of Sentiments: Reflections on Hume’s Treatise. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
Cohon, Rachel (2004) "Hume's Moral Philosophy". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.) The Stanford
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2004/entries/hume-moral/
Mackie, J.L. 1980. Hume’s Moral Theory. Routledge.
Rawls, John. 2000. Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy. Barbara Herman (ed.).
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Lectures on Hume, especially lectures III and V.
Week 3: Kant’s Moral Philosophy
Core reading:
Kant, Immanuel. 1998 [1785]. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Mary Gregor (ed.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, preface and sections I and II.
Supplementary readings:
Darwall, Stephen. 1998. Philosophical Ethics. Boulder: Westview, chapters on Kant.
Herman, Barbara. 1996. The Practice of Moral Judgment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Korsgaard, Christine. 1996. Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, especially chapters 1 and 2.
Wood, Allen. 2006. “The Supreme Principle of Morality.” In Paul Guyer (ed.): The Cambridge
Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available
at:http://www.stanford.edu/~allenw/webpapers/SupremePrincipleMorality.pdf.
Week 4: Consequentialism and Consequentialising
Core reading:
Pettit, Philip. 1997. “The Consequentialist Perspective.” In M. Baron, P. Pettit & M. Slote
(eds.) Three Methods of Ethics. Blackwell, focus on pp. 92 - 102 and 115 - 133. (pdf-file)
Supplementary readings:
Brown, Campell. 2011. “Consequentialize This!” Ethics 121(4): 749–771.
Dreier, James. 1993. “Structures of Normative Theories.” The Monist 76: 22-40. Available
at:http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/onlinepapers/dreier/Structures_of_Normative_
Theories.pdf
Portmore, Douglas W. 2009. “Consequentializing.” Philosophy Compass 4/2: 329–
347. http://www.blackwellcompass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?article_id=phco_articles_bpl198.
Railton, Peter. 1984. "Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality."Philosophy and
Public Affairs 13(2): 134-71.
Scheffler, Samuel. 1983. The Rejection of Consequentialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Williams, Bernard. 1973. “A Critique of Utilitarianism.” In Smart and WilliamsUtilitarianism, For
and Against. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, especially pp. 82 – 118 (pdf-file).
You might also find this interview with Pettit helpful:http://philosophybites.com/2011/09/philippettit-on-consequentialism-1.html.
Week 5: Virtue Ethics
Core reading:
Aristotle. 1980. Nicomachean Ethics. S. Broadie and C. Rowe. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
books 1 and 2.
Supplementary readings:
Anscombe, G.E.M. 1958. "Modern Moral Philosophy." Philosophy 33:1 – 19.
Foot, Philippa. 1997. “Virtues and Vices.” In Crisp, Roger and Slote (eds.) Virtue Ethics. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Hursthouse, Rosalind. 1997. “Normative Virtue Ethics.” In Crisp, Roger and M. Slote (eds.) Virtue
Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McDowell, John, 1979, “Virtue and Reason.” Monist 62: 331–50.
Sreenivasan, Ghopal. 2013. “The Situationist Critique of Virtue Ethics. In Daniel C. Russell
(ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Virtue Ethics. Cambridge University Press.
Wolf, Susan. 1982. “Moral Saints.” Journal of Philosophy 79 (8): 419 – 439.
Week 7: Moral Realism
Core reading:
Schafer-Landau, Russ. 2003. Moral Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, chapters 3 and 4 (ebook; chapters are accessible if connection is via the Warwick library).
Supplementary readings:
Brink, David. 1989. Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, chapter 2.
Enoch, David. 2007. “An Outline of an Argument for Robust Metanormative Realism”. Oxford
Studies in Metaethics 2: 21-50 (a copy of the paper is available atssrn.
Railton, Peter. 1986. “Moral Realism.” Philosophical Review 95: 163–
207.http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2185589.pdf.
Scanlon, Thomas. 2014. Being Realistic about Reasons. Oxford: Oxford University Press, lectures 1
and 2 (e-book).
Smith, Michael. 1994. The Moral Problem. Malden: Blackwell, chapter 6.
Week 8: Error Theory
Core reading:
Olson, Jonas. 2010. “In Defence of Moral Error Theory.” In Brady (ed.) New Waves in Meta-Ethics.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
(http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/center/rome/RoME_2009_full_papers/Jonas_Olson_In%20D
efence%20of%20Moral%20Error%20Theory.doc)
Supplementary readings:
Brink, David. 1984. “Moral Realism and the Skeptical Arguments from Disagreement and
Queerness.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 62: 111-125.
Darwall, Stephen. 1998. “The Error Theory and Ethical Relativism.” In Philosophical Ethics.
Colorado: Westview Press), Ch. 7.
Joyce, Richard. 2001. “The Myth of Morality.” In Shafter-Landau & Cuneo (eds.),Foundations of
Ethics: An Anthology, ch. 2
Mackie, John. 1977. Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. Harmondsworth: Penguin, chapter 1.
Rowland, Richard. 2013. “Moral Error Theory and the Argument From Epistemic Reasons.” Journal
of Ethics and Social Philosophy 7 (1):1 – 24.
Week 9: Constructivism
Core reading:
Korsgaard, Christine. 2008. “Realism and Constructivism in 20th Century Moral Philosophy.” In
Korsgaard The Constitution of Agency. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 202 – 326. [available
form Oxford Scholarship online]
Supplementary readings:
Enoch, David. 2006. “Agency, Shmagency: Why Normativity Won't Come from What Is
Constitutive of Action.” The Philosophical Review 115: 169-198.
Korsgaard, Christine. 1996. “The Reasons We Can Share.” In Korsgaard Creating the Kingdom of
Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Korsgaard, Christine. 1997. Sources of Normativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
especially chapter 1.
Rawls, John. 1999. “Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory.” In Rawls Collected Papers.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Shafer-Landau, Russ. 2003. Moral Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. 2.
Street, Sharon. 2010. “What is Constructivism in Ethics and Metaethics? Philosophy Compass 5(5):
363 – 384.
Week 10: Expressivism
Core reading:
Gibbard, Allan. 1990. Wise Choices, Apt Feelings. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, chapters 1
and 3.
Supplementary readings:
Blackburn, Stephen. 1998. Ruling Passions. Oxford: Clarendon, especially chapter 3.
Darwall, Stephen. 1998. Philosophical Ethics. Boulder: Westview, chapter 8.
Schroeder, Mark. 2008. “What is the Frege-Geach Problem?” Philosophy Compass 3 (4): 703 –
720. (available at: http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~maschroe/research/Schroeder_FregeGeach_Problem.pdf).
Shafer-Landau, Russ. 2003. Moral Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. 1.
Smith, Michael. 1994. The Moral Problem. Malden: Blackwell, chapter 2.