Ethics
Rachel Elizabeth Fraser
Exeter College, University of Oxford
rachel.fraser@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
∗
marks reading which is strongly recommend; unmarked reading
should not be prioritised.
Week 1 – Kant
*KANT, Immanuel, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. sects. 1
and 2.
Catergorical Imperative
*KORSGAARD, Christine, ’Kant’s Formula of Universal Law’, and
"Morality and Freedom" in her Creating the Kingdom of Ends, pp.
77-105.
PALLIKKATHAYIL, Japa, ’Deriving Morality from Politics: Rethinking the Formula of Humanity’, Ethics, 121 (2010): 116-47.
PARFIT, Derek, On What Matters. Vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2011), chs. 9 and 12.
Questions
1 Does Kant have a compelling argument for the categorical imperative? If not, might one be produced?
2 Can the categorical imperative guide our actions?
ethics
Week 2 – Duty and Motivation
Duty
*LANGTON, Rae, ’Duty and Desolation’, Philosophy, 67 (1992):
481-505. Link
HERMAN, Barbara, ’On the Value of Acting from the Motive of
Duty Alone’, The Philosophical Review, 90 (1981): 359-382. Also in
her The Practice of Moral Judgements, pp. 1-22.
WOLF, Susan, ’Moral Saints’, J. Phil, 1982. Link.
Moral Internalism
TOPPINEN, Temu, ’Moral Fetischism Revisited’, Proceedings of the
Aristotelian Society New Series, Vol. 104 (2004), pp. 307-315
WILLIAMS, Bernard, ’Internal and External Reasons’. Link
SMITH, Michael, ’The Humean Theory of Motivation’, Mind, (1987):
36-61.
1 Is it repugnant to act only from a motive of duty?
2 If I judge that I ought to φ, must I be motivated to φ.
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Week 3 – Freedom and Responsibility
* STRAWSON, Peter, ’Freedom and Resentment’, Proceedings of the
British Academy, 48: (1990): 1âĂŞ25.
WILLIAMS, Bernard, ’Moral Luck’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian
Society, Supplementary Volumes 50 (1976): 115-135.
CHAPPELL, Sophie-Grace, Knowing What to Do, chap. 1. Link. 1
Agency and Oppression
BENSON, P. ’Feminist Second Thoughts About Free Agency’, Hypatia, 5, (1990): 47-64.
SUPERSON, A., ’The Deferential Wife Revisited: Agency and Moral
Responsibility’, Hypatia, 25, (2010): 253-275.
WENDELL, S. ’Oppression and Victimization; Choice and Responsibility,’ Hypatia, 5, (1990): 15-46.
Free Will and Determinism
FRANKFURT, Harry, ’Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility’, Journal of Philosophy 66, (1990): 829-39.
VAN INWAGEN, Peter, ’The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism’, Philosophical Studies 1975
Questions
1 Is free will just the capacity to translate one’s values into action?
2 Is it ever appropriate to hold someone responsible for an involuntary failing?
3 Can agents ever fail to be morally responsible because they are
oppressed?
Sophie-Grace Chappell previously
published under a different name; don’t
let this confuse you!
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Week 4 – Moral Judgement
*HUME, David, Treatise on Human Nature, bk. 2, pt. 3, sect. 3; bk. 3,
pt. 1
*AYER, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, chap. 6
HUME, David, Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, app. I
Frege-Geach
*SCHROEDER, M., ’What is the Frege-Geach problem?’ Philosophy
Compass 3/4 (2008): 703-720.
BLACKBURN, Simon, Spreading the word, chap. 6.
Questions
1 Are moral judgements simply the expression of desires?
2 Which ethical theory best accounts for the fact that moral judgements typically have motivating force?
3 What is the Frege-Geach problem? How decisively does it tell
against non-cognitivism?
4 Are any moral judgements true?
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Week 5 – Realism and Objectivity
*Finlay, S. Four Faces of Moral Realism. Available here.
*KORSGAARD, Christine, ’Realism and Constructivism in Twentieth Century Moral Philosophy’, Philosophy in America at the
Turn of the Century, APA Centennial Supplement to the Journal
of Philosophical Research, V. 28, pp. 99-122. Reprinted in her The
Constitution of Agency, pp. 302-26.
Naturalistic Realism
*BRINK, David, Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), chap. 7.
Non-natural realism
WIELENBERG, Erik J., ’In Defence of Non-Natural, Non-Theistic
Moral Realism’, Faith and Philosophy 26:1 (2009): 23-41.
Constructivism
RAWLS, John, ’Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory’, Journal of
Philosophy, 77 (1980): 515-72.
*STREET, Sharon, ’A Darwinian Dilemma Realist Theories of Value’,
Philosophical Studies, 127 (2006): 109-66
Error Theory
*MACKIE, J. L., Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, chap. 1.
STREUMER, Bart, Unbelievable Errors, chap. 5
Questions
1 Can a constructivist think that there are objective moral values?
2 Is non-natural moral realism more appealing than naturalist moral
realism?
3 Does evolutionary theory give us reason to abandon moral realism?
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Week 6 – Consequentialism
Overview
Nozick, Robert, Anarchy, state and Utopia. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1984, pp. 26-33
*PETTIT, P. ’Consequentialism’. Link
Rights
PETTIT, P. ’The Consequentialist Can Recognise Rights’, Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 35, pp. 537-51.
The Trolley Problem
THOMSON, Judith Jarvis, ’The Trolley Problem’. Link
Alienation and Friendship
Railton, P, ’Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of
Morality’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 13(2), 134-171. Link
F. Jackson, ’Decision-theoretic Consequentialism and the Nearest
and Dearest Objection’. Link
Feminism and Consequentialism
Driver, Julia. ’Consequentialism and Feminist Ethics’, Hypatia, 20:
183-199.
Attributive Goodness
BYRNE, Thomas, ’Might Anything Be Plain Good?’, Philosophical Studies 173, (2016): 3335-3346.
Questions
1 What is the most compelling objection to consequentialism? Can it
be satisfactorily answered?
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Week 7 – Virtue
History
ARISTOTLE, Nicomachean Ethics, book 1, ch. 7; 2.1-6;6.1; 6.12-13;
10.7-8
Modern Virtue Ethics
*HURSTHOUSE, Rosalind, ’Normative virtue ethics’, in R. Crisp
(ed.), How should one live?: essays on the virtues.
*HURKA, T, ’Against Virtue Ethics’, ch. 8 of his Virtue, Vice, and
Value .
FOOT ’Virtues and Vices’, in her Virtues and Vices.
MCDOWELL, John, ’Virtue and Reason’, The Monist, 1979.
HALWANI, R., ’Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics’, Hypatia, 18: 161-192.
Questions
1 Can virtue ethics be genuinely action guiding?
2 Is there any reason to prefer virtue ethics to consequentialism?
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Week 8 – Guilt, Shame and Forgiveness
Guilt and Shame
*NUSSBAUM, Martha, Hiding From Humanity, chap 4 and 5.
WILLIAMS, Bernard, Shame and Necessity, chap 4, endnote 1.
FREUD, Sigmund, Civillisation and Its Discontents, chap. 7.
Shame and Recognition
TAYLOR, G., Pride, Shame, and Guilt, chs. 3 and 4
BARTKY, Sandra, Femininity and Domination, ch. 6.
Questions
1 Is it ever morally appropriate to feel shame?
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