Philosophy 241 Introductory Ethics Julius Sensat Meica Magnani

Announcement Discussion sections will be held this week

Procedures and requirements syllabus schedule

Content overview What is moral philosophy? Three approaches Social justice

What is moral philosophy? Broad sense: reflective examination of ways of living (Socrates) Narrow sense – 3 basic concepts: The right The good Moral worth – Two questions Moral judgment Moral motivation

3 basic concepts The right: right vs. wrong action, justice and injustice in institutions The good: Which ends should we pursue? Moral worth: What makes a person morally good?

Two questions Nature of moral judgment: How are the concepts to be applied, and in what sense if any are they objective? Nature of moral motivation: How is it possible for these concepts to motivate us in action?

Three approaches Ethical rationalism (Plato’s Republic, John Locke) Ideal spectator approach (Hume, Mill and utilitarianism) Contractualism (Kant, Rawls)

Ethical rationalism Morality is a body of knowledge about an independent reality. Moral principles are true statements about values that are fixed in the nature of things and knowable by human reason.

Ideal spectator approach Moral claims are not factual claims at all, but expressions of attitudes of approval or disapproval.

Contractualism The correct moral principles are the ones that would be adopted in an ideal agreement. They are not factual claims or expressions of attitude, but rather rules that everyone could reasonably agree to live by.

Social justice The problem: moral assessment of society’s basic institutions Rationalism: – Justice in Plato’s Republic – Lockean libertarianism Ideal spectator approach: utilitarianism Contractualism: Rawls’s justice as fairness

First topic Socrates’s defense of reasoned justification Text for next time: Plato’s Euthyphro, in The Trial and Death of Socrates