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Professor Marion Smiley
Department of Philosophy
Brandeis University
Fall 2014
110 Humanities Center
Phone: 781-736-2792
email: smiley@brandeis.edu
Philosophy 114/ Topics in Ethical Theory
Sources of Normativity
Philosophy 114 is organized this term around two questions that are central to
ethical theory: What is the source of normativity in the realm of ethics? Is moral
relativism justified and, if so, what implications follow for normative inquiry? The first
part of the course – which extends over much of the term – explores the efforts of
Kantians, constructivists, naturalists, moral realists, social contract theorists, pragmatists,
and evolutionary biologists to locate the source of normativity in various places, e.g.,
rationality, nature, survival. The second part of the course explores a series of
controversies associated with moral relativism, its relationship to cultural relativism, its
coherence as an ethical theory, its empirical basis, and its implications for ethical action.
This course is an advanced ethics course and requires individuals to have taken
Introduction to Ethics.
Course Requirements: two 7-8 page papers and a final quiz/exam.
attendance is mandatory. Class participation is greatly encouraged.
Class
Required Books/ The following three books can be purchased at the Brandeis
University Bookstore:
Christine Korsgaard, The Sources of Normativity.
Frans de Waal et al., Primates and Philosophers.
Paul Moser and Thomas Carson, eds, Moral Relativism.
The remaining required works can be found in a coursepack (cited below as CP)
for purchase on the first day of class.
I have also included a list of extra readings at the end of the syllabus that are not
required for undergraduates. Some of them will be placed on the class LATTE page.
Attention: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis
and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me
immediately either after class or during my office hours.
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CLASS READINGS
Note: Since each class will be devoted to the assigned readings, please make sure to
complete these readings by the date cited.
Sept. 3: Introduction to Course/
Christine Korsgaard, Sources of Normativity, pp. 10-27.
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Sept. 8: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, chapters 10-15 (CP).
Sept. 10: Leviathan, chapters 16-19, 21 (CP).
Sept. 15: Thomas Scanlon, chapter 5, What We Owe Each Other (CP).
Sept. 17: Korsgarrd, Sources of Normativity, pp. 28-48.
Sept. 22: G.E. Moore, selections from Principia Ethica (CP).
Sept. 24: Richard Boyd, “How to be a Moral Realist” (CP).
Sept. 29: David Hume, Book III, Part 1, sections 1-2, Treatise on Human Nature (CP).
Oct. 1: David Hume, Book III, Part 2, sections 1-5, Treatise on Human Nature (CP).
Alisdair MacIntyre, “Hume on “Is’ and “Ought” (CP).
Oct. 6: Korsgaard, Sources of Normativity, pp. 89-113.
Oct. 8: Korsgaard, Sources of Normativity, pp. 113-130.
Oct. 15: Korsgaard, Sources of Normativity, pp. 131-166.
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Oct. 20: First Papers Due: no class (extra office hours)
Oct. 22: John Dewey, selections from Works (CP).
Oct. 27: Frans de Waal, “How Morality Evolved” in Primates and Philosophers,
pp. 1-59.
Oct. 29: Robert Wright, “The Uses of Anthropomorphism”, in Primates
and Philosophers, pp. 83-97.
Christine Korsgaard, “Morality and the Distinctness of Human Action,” in
Philosophers and Primates, pp. 98-119.
Nov. 3: Peter Singer, “Morality, Reason, and the Rights of Animals, in Primates and
Philosophers, pp. 14-160.
Nov. 5 Richard Brandt, “Ethical Relativism”, in Moral Relativism, pp. 25-31.
James Rachels, “The Challenges of Cultural Relativism”, in Moral Relativism,
pp. 53-68.
Nov. 10: William Graham Summer, “Folkways”, in Moral Relativism, pp. 53-68.
W.D. Ross, “The Meaning of Right,” in Moral Relativism, pp. 90-92.
Nov. 12: Michele Moody-Adams, “The Empirical Underdetermination of Descriptive
Cultural Relativism”, in Moral Relativism, pp. 93-106.
Carl Wellman, “The Ethical Implications of Cultural Relativity”, Moral
Relativism, pp. 107-122.
Nov. 17: Betsy Postow, “Dishonest Relativism”, in Moral Relativism, pp. 123-126.
David Lyons, “Ethical Relativism and the Problem of Incoherence,” in
Moral Relativism, pp. 127-144.
Nov. 19: Thomas Scanlon, “Fear of Relativism”, in Moral Relativism, pp. 142-164.
Nov. 24: Gilbert Harman, “Is There a Single True Morality?,” in Moral Relativism,
pp. 165-184.
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Dec. 3: Martha Nussbaum, “Non-Relative Virtues,” in Moral Relativism, pp. 199-225.
Dec. 5: Gordon Graham, “Tolerance, Pluralism, and Relativism,” in Moral
Relativism, pp. 226-240.
Dec. 8: Conclusions. Second Papers Due
SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Kantianism/Constructivism
Stephen Darwell, “Morality and Practical Reason: A Kantian Approach,” in the
Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, ed. David Copp. Oxford University Press: 2007.
pp. 282-320.
Christine Korsgaard, “Skepticism About Practical Reason,” in Moral Discourse
and Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches, ed. Stephen Darwell, Alan Gibbard and
Peter Railton. Oxford University. Press: 1997. pp. 377-388.
David Velleman, “The Possibility of Practical Reason”, The Possibility of Practical
Reason. Michigan Scholarly Publication Office, University of Michigan Library, 2010,
pp. 170-199.
Sharon Street, “Constructivism About Reasons,” Oxford Studies in Metaethics,
Vol. 3., ed. Russ Shafer-Landau. Clarendon Press: 2008.
Utilitarianism/Contractarianism/Desire Satisfaction Theory/Humeanism
James Dreier, “Humean Doubts about the Practical Justification of Morality,” in
Ethics and Practical Reason, ed. Garrett Cullity and Berys Nigel. Clarendon Press: 1997.
Sharon Hewitt, “Intrinsic Goodness and Badness as Phenomenological Qualities”
(unpublished paper; WORD document available)
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Fred Feldman, “The Good Life: A Defense of Attitudinal Hedonism”, in Ethical
Theory: An Anthology, ed. Russ Shafer-Landau. Blackwell Publicshers: 2007), pp. 294305.
James Griffin, “The Informed Desire Account”, in Ethical Theory: An Anthology,
ed. Russ Shafer-Landau. Blackwell Publishers: 2007, pp. 306-314.
Thomas Scanlon, “Contractarianism and Utilitarianism,” in Moral Discourse and
Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches, ed. Stephen Darwell, Alan Gibbard, and Peter
Railton. Oxford University Press: 1997. pp. 373-388.
Peter Railton, “Humean Theory of Practical Rationality,” Oxford Handbook of
Ethical Theory, ed. David Copp. Oxford University Press: 2007. pp. 265-281.
Bernard Williams, “Internal and External Reasons,” Moral Discourse and Practice:
Some Philosophical Approaches, ed. Stephen Darwell, Alan Gibbard and Peter Railton.
Oxford University Press: 1997. pp. 363-372.
______________, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Harvard University Press:
1985.
Realism: Naturalism/Nonnaturalism
H. Prichard, “Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?”, Mind 21 (1912).
G.E. Moore, “The Conception of Intrinsic Value”. Philosophical Studies. Kegan
Paul: 1922.
Jonathan Dancy, “Nonnaturalism”, Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, ed. David
Copp. Oxford University Press: 2007, pp. 122-145.
Russ Shafer-Landau, “Ethics as Philosophy: A Defense of Ethical Nonnaturalism,”
Ethical Theory: An Anthology, ed. Russ Shafer-Landau. Blackwell Publishers: 2007. pp.
62-71.
Nicholas Sturgen, “Moral Explanations”, Morality, Reason, and Truth: New Essays
on the Foundations of Ethics, ed. David Copp and David Zimmerman. Rowman and
Littlefield: 1985.
Thomas Nagel, The View From Nowhere. Oxford University Press: 1986.
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Antirealism/Emotivism/Error Theory
Gilbert Harman, “Ethics and Observation”, Moral Discourse and Practices: Some
Philosophical Approaches, ed. Stephen Darwell, Alan Gibbard, and Peter Railton.
Oxford University Press: 1997. pp. 83-88.
J. L. Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong Penguin: 1997.
Charles Stevenson, “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms,” in Moral Discourse
and Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches, ed. Stephen Darwell, Alan Gibbard, and
Peter Railton. Oxford University Press: 1997. pp. 71-82.
Sharon Street, “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value, Philosophical
Studies, vol. 127, no. 2 (2006), pp 109-166.
Pragmatism and Ethical Theory
Gregory Pappas, John Dewey’s Ethics. Indiana University Press: 2008.
Todd Lekan, Making Morality: Pragmatic Reconstruction in Ethical Theory.
Vanderbilt University Press: 2003.
Biological/Evolutionary Sources of Moral Imperatives
Philip Kitcher, “Biology and Ethics,” in Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, ed.
David Copp. Oxford University Press: 2007.
Marion Hourdequin, “Evolution and Ethics”
Virtue Theory and the Location of the Normative
Philippa Foot, “Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives”, Moral
Discourses and Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches, ed. Stephen Darwell, Alan
Gibbard, and Peter Railton. Oxford University Press: 1997. pp. 312-322.
Michael Slote, “Moral Sentimentalism and Moral Psychology, Oxford Handbook
of Ethical Theory, ed. David Copp. Oxford University Press: 2007. pp. 219-239.