This class is an introduction to moral philosophy. All of us have intuitions about right and wrong. Moral philosophy invites us to question and to better understand the positions we take on moral questions. Moral philosophy gives us tools for 1) combating moral relativism and 2) weighing one position on a moral issue against another. We will focus on issues like whether moral judgments are merely matters of personal opinion (they aren’t), whether being just is always in one’s self-interest, what it means to treat others as ends in themselves and why it is wrong to treat someone as a mere means. We will talk about different approaches to moral philosophy from measuring actions by their utility in achieving our goals (happiness or the good, for example) to the difference between asking what are the right actions to take versus asking what sort of person one should be. This will be a heavily participatory, discussion-focused class. You should be prepared to share your thoughts and questions every class period.
