Philosophy 241

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Philosophy 241

• Introductory Ethics
• Julius Sensat
• Meica Magnani

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Announcement
Discussion sections will be held this week
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Procedures and requirements

• syllabus
• schedule

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Content overview

• What is moral philosophy?
• Three approaches
• Social justice

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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

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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?

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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?

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Three approaches

• Ethical rationalism (Platos Republic, John
  Locke)
• Ideal spectator approach (Hume, Mill and
  utilitarianism)
• Contractualism (Kant, Rawls)

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

• The problem moral assessment of societys basic
  institutions
• Rationalism
• Justice in Platos Republic
• Lockean libertarianism
• Ideal spectator approach utilitarianism
• Contractualism Rawlss justice as fairness

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First topic

• Socratess defense of reasoned justification
• Text for next time Platos Euthyphro, in The
  Trial and Death of Socrates