ETHICS: SELECTED TOPICS
ALLAN GIBBARD’S THINKING HOW TO LIVE
G83.2285-001
Spring 2004
Fridays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Silver Center 503
INSTRUCTOR
Sharon Street
E-mail: sharon.street@nyu.edu
Office phone: (212) 998-8324
Office hours: Wednesdays from 4-5 p.m. and by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this seminar, we will undertake a close reading of Allan Gibbard’s new book, Thinking How to Live.
Gibbard’s aim in the book is to study the workings of normative or “ought-laden” concepts as they figure in
our thought about what to do, believe, and feel, and to offer an expressivistic theory of these concepts.
Central topics of the book include: the difference between normative and descriptive discourse (between
questions of “ought” and “is”); the nature of objectivity and “factuality” in ethics; and expressivism and the
Frege-Geach problem. While our focus will be Gibbard’s treatment of these issues in Thinking How to
Live, additional background readings on these topics will be assigned and discussed as relevant.
TEXTS
Required: Gibbard, Allan. Thinking How to Live. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Recommended:
Gibbard, Allan. Wise Choices, Apt Feelings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Darwall, Stephen, Allan Gibbard, and Peter Railton, eds. Moral Discourse and Practice. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Thinking How to Live and Wise Choices, Apt Feelings are available at the NYU Main Bookstore. Moral
Discourse and Practice can be delivered the same day on Manhattan by Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com).
All additional readings for the course are either available online or will be made available in a folder in the
Department copy room.
REQUIREMENTS
Seminar paper. A seminar paper of roughly 20 pages in length will be due on Friday, May 7th . In
accordance with Department policy (see http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/programs/standing.html), a
grade of incomplete will not be issued unless a draft of the written work is handed in before the end of the
term. Those taking an incomplete will be required to submit the final version of their paper no later than
the first day of fall 2004 classes.
Presentations. Each week, one seminar member will be asked to give a brief (10-15 minute) presentation
and to help lead discussion on whichever chapter of Gibbard we are covering that week. This person will
be asked to e-mail me and the rest of the class by 5 p.m. on Wednesday with a short (1-5 page) outline or
essay laying out an objection, an interpretive puzzle, or some other detailed question or questions
concerning the reading. Those taking the course for credit will be required to do this on one or a small
number of occasions; auditors are strongly encouraged (but not required) to volunteer for this as well.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
This schedule is subject to adjustments. Readings marked with a ‘*’ will be the focus of our discussion. Readings
marked with a ‘+’ are recommended. Readings marked with a ‘–’ are also recommended, but lower priority.
Friday, January 23rd
* Preface and Chapter 1 of Thinking How to Live – Introduction: A Possibility Proof
+ Précis of Wise Choices, Apt Feelings (photocopy or in Moral Discourse and Practice)
– Chapters 1-4 of Wise Choices, Apt Feelings
Friday, January 30th
*
+
+
–
Chapter 2 of Thinking How to Live – Intuitionism as Template: Emending Moore
Selections from G. E. Moore’s Principia Ethica (photocopy or in Moral Discourse and Practice)
Peter Railton’s “Naturalism and Prescriptivity” (photocopy)
Peter Railton’s “Moral Realism” (available on JSTOR or in Moral Discourse and Practice)
Friday, February 6 th
* Chapter 3 of Thinking How to Live – Planning and Ruling Out: The Frege-Geach Problem
– Chapter 5 of Wise Choices, Apt Feelings
– James Dreier’s “Expressivist Embeddings and Minimalist Truth” (photocopy)
Friday, February 13th
* Chapter 4 of Thinking How to Live – Judgment, Disagreement, Negation
– Simon Blackburn’s “Gibbard on Normative Logic” (photocopy)
Friday, February 20th
* Chapter 5 of Thinking How to Live – Supervenience and Constitution
Friday, February 27th
* Chapter 6 of Thinking How to Live – Character and Import
Friday, March 5 th
* Chapter 7 of Thinking How to Live – Ordinary Oughts: Meaning and Motivation
– Stephen Darwall’s “Reasons, Motives, and the Demands of Morality: An Introduction” (photocopy or in
Moral Discourse and Practice)
– Philippa Foot’s “Moral Beliefs” (photocopy)
Friday, March 12th
* Chapter 8 of Thinking How to Live – Normative Kinds: Patterns of Engagement
+ Geoffrey Sayre-McCord’s “‘Good’ on Twin Earth” (available on Sayre-McCord’s web site at
http://www.unc.edu/depts/phildept/smccord.htm)
Friday, March 19th
SPRING BREAK
Friday, March 26th
* Chapter 9 of Thinking How to Live – What to Say about the Thing to Do: The Expressivistic Turn and
What It Gains Us
+ Ronald Dworkin’s “Objectivity and Truth: You’d Better Believe It” (available on JSTOR)
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Friday, April 2 nd
*
+
+
–
Chapter 10 of Thinking How to Live – Explaining with Plans
Gilbert Harman’s “Ethics and Observation” (photocopy or in Moral Discourse and Practice)
Nicholas Sturgeon’s “Moral Explanations” (photocopy)
Richard Boyd’s “How to Be a Moral Realist” (photocopy or in Moral Discourse and Practice)
Friday, April 9 th
* Chapter 11 of Thinking How to Live – Knowing What to Do
Friday, April 16th
* Chapter 12 of Thinking How to Live – Ideal Response Concepts
+ Peter Railton’s “Moral Realism” (if you didn’t already read it earlier in the semester—available on
JSTOR or in Moral Discourse and Practice)
– Roderick Firth’s “Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer” (available on JSTOR)
Friday, April 23rd
* Chapter 13 of Thinking How to Live – Deep Vindication and Practical Confidence
+ Sharon Street’s “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories About Reasons” (photocopy)
Friday, April 30th
* Chapter 14 of Thinking How to Live – Impasse and Dissent
+ Chapters 8-10 of Wise Choices, Apt Feelings
– Chapters 11-13 of Wise Choices, Apt Feelings
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