Ethics/Metaethics

Decisions about medical treatment take place in the context of changing health care systems, changing ideas about rights and obligations, and among doctors and patients who have diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. By means of historical, philosophical, and medical readings, this course examines such issues as paternalism, autonomy, the commodification of the body, and the enhancement of mental and/or physical characteristics.

Topic: Relativism and Universalism (instructor: A. Luboff)
Are our normative claims about what is good, what is right, even what is true, constrained to a particular culture, or way of life?  Or, are there universal principles to which all people, of all places and times, either (implicitly or explicitly) adhere, or should adhere? In this course, we will examine the rich, complex relationship between these two views, relativism and universalism.  Our readings will draw from both philosophy and anthropology, giving us the opportunity to consider closely the interplay between theory, examples and context. Authors include M. Krausz, D. Wong, C. Geertz, R. Shweder and M. Nussbaum.

Topic: Knowledge and the Concept of Mind (instructor: N. Koziolek)

What is knowledge? How do we acquire it? Do we really have any? These are, typically, taken to be the central questions of epistemology, i.e., the theory of knowledge. But attempts to answer them are intimately connected with the arguably broader issue of how to understand the nature of the mind. Different conceptions of mind suggest different answers to these questions, different answers—indeed, even approaches—to these questions encourage different conceptions of mind. In this course, we will trace out some of the connections between epistemology and philosophy of mind as they appear in the history of epistemology, with a focus on the late twentieth century. We will consider both the analytic approach to epistemology instituted by Edmund Gettier, including the now well-known criticisms of the approach due to Timothy Williamson, as well as the more historically oriented approach represented in the works of Wilfrid Sellars and his followers, including Donald Davidson and John McDowell.

Topic: Relativism and Universalism (instructor: A. Luboff)
Are our normative claims about what is good, what is right, even what is true, constrained to a particular culture, or way of life?  Or, are there universal principles to which all people, of all places and times, either (implicitly or explicitly) adhere, or should adhere? In this course, we will examine the rich, complex relationship between these two views, relativism and universalism.  Our readings will draw from both philosophy and anthropology, giving us the opportunity to consider closely the interplay between theory, examples and context. Authors include M. Krausz, D. Wong, C. Geertz, R. Shweder and M. Nussbaum.

Topic: Knowledge and the Concept of Mind (instructor: N. Koziolek)

What is knowledge? How do we acquire it? Do we really have any? These are, typically, taken to be the central questions of epistemology, i.e., the theory of knowledge. But attempts to answer them are intimately connected with the arguably broader issue of how to understand the nature of the mind. Different conceptions of mind suggest different answers to these questions, different answers—indeed, even approaches—to these questions encourage different conceptions of mind. In this course, we will trace out some of the connections between epistemology and philosophy of mind as they appear in the history of epistemology, with a focus on the late twentieth century. We will consider both the analytic approach to epistemology instituted by Edmund Gettier, including the now well-known criticisms of the approach due to Timothy Williamson, as well as the more historically oriented approach represented in the works of Wilfrid Sellars and his followers, including Donald Davidson and John McDowell.

In this course, we will read, write, think, and talk about moral philosophy, focusing on two classic texts, Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism. We will work through both texts carefully, and have a look at influential criticisms of utilitarianism and of Kant's ethics in the concluding weeks of the term. This course is intended as an introductory course in moral philosophy. (A)