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Class Detail:

FA 2012
Philosophy
PHIL 640 - Seminar in Ethics
Section 001

Credits: 3
Waitlist Capacity: 10
Advisory Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Repeatability: May not be repeated for credit.
Primary Instructor: Gibbard,Allan F

 

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The seminar will explore some aspects of the relation between moral psychology and moral philosophy, with attention to empirical findings and their bearing on normative and metanormative questions. Among the works we read will be Philip Kitcher’s book The Moral Project, which proposes naturalistic ways of doing moral philosophy that are sharply different from predominant traditions, and Jonathan Haidt’s Righteous Minds (2012), which reviews findings of the social psychology of morality. Some time ago, in Wise Choices, Apt Feelings (1990), I offered a speculative account of moral judgment treated as a natural phenomenon, drawing, among other things, on evolutionary theory. In the time since then, the psychology of morality has been greatly developed. The subject is vast, and we can’t do more than to sample some works of importance in these broad areas, asking what we should now say, in light of developments of the past two decades, about the nature of moral judgment and how to pursue moral inquiry.


Course Syllabi
Syllabi are available to current LSA students. IMPORTANT: These syllabi are provided to give students a general idea about the courses, as offered by LSA departments and programs in prior academic terms. The syllabi do not necessarily reflect the assignments, sequence of course materials, and/or course expectations that the faculty and departments/programs have for these same courses in the current and/or future terms.

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Textbooks/Other Materials (data maintained by department in Wolverine Access)

ISBN: 9780307377906 The righteous mind : why good people are divided by politics and religion, Author: Jonathan Haidt., Publisher: Pantheon Books 1st ed.
Required

ISBN: 9780521531825 Upheavals of thought : the intelligence of emotions, Author: Martha C. Nussbaum., Publisher: Cambridge University Press Paperback 2003
Required

ISBN: 9780674061446 The ethical project, Author: Philip Kitcher., Publisher: Harvard University Press
Required

ISBN: 9780674953789 Wise choices, apt feelings : a theory of normative judgment, Author: Allan Gibbard., Publisher: Harvard University Press 1st Harvar 1990
Optional

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