PHIL 160.001 – Introduction to Ethics

Instructor: Ian Cruise. This course meets MWF 9:05 – 9:55 a.m. in CW 105.

This class is an introduction to a number of foundational questions in moral philosophy.  We will be reading (selections from) three classic works:  Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, and Mill’s Utilitarianism.  We will also look at contemporary developments and applications of the ethical theories developed in these works.  Finally, we will consider different kinds of skeptical challenges to morality and try to figure out how we might defend morality in the face of these challenges.