PHIL 160.001 – Introduction to Ethics

Instructor: Keshav Singh. This course meets MTWRF 1:15 – 2:45 p.m. in CW 208.

What does it take to live a good life? What are our moral obligations to others? What makes an action morally right or wrong? And what does it mean for an action to be morally right or wrong in the first place? These are some of the questions we will tackle in this course. In doing so, we will read and discuss both classic texts in ethics from philosophers such as Plato, Kant and Mill, and contemporary work from Russ Shafer-Landau, Peter Singer, Bernard Williams, Susan Wolf, and others.

Class meetings will proceed through a mix of lecture and discussion, and participation will be a significant component of the course. The course will be appropriate both as an introduction to philosophical thought for students who have not yet taken a philosophy course, and for students who have already studied some philosophy and are interested in learning more about moral philosophy.