Moral Problems and the Good Life

About This Course

This course has two goals. The first goal is to introduce you to key questions in ethics.

What makes your life go better or worse for you?

Can ethics be objective?

What are the main historical approaches in ethics?

What do you owe to others?

The second goal is to get you thinking rigorously about ethical questions yourself. This will help you develop your critical reasoning and argumentative skills more generally.

Studying philosophy is valuable in itself, but it’s also excellent preparation for a wide variety of other fields. Philosophy majors do exceptionally well in the GRE, GMAT and LSAT, for example. See here for more details.

Syllabus

Lecture 1: What is Ethics?

PART 1: WHAT MAKES YOUR LIFE GO BETTER OR WORSE FOR YOU?

Lecture 2: Hedonism — It is about pleasure and pain

Lecture 3: Desire Satisfaction — It is about getting what you want

Lecture 4: Objective Theories — It is about what is worth wanting

Lecture 5: Death — Is death bad for you?

PART 2: CAN ETHICS BE OBJECTIVE?

Lecture 6: Objectivity and God — Ethics without divine command

Lecture 7: Relativism — Ethics across cultures

Lecture 8: Moral Epistemology — Knowing right from wrong

PART 3: THE HISTORY OF ETHICS

Lecture 9: Bentham and Mill — Utilitarianism

Lecture 10: Kant I — Deontology

Lecture 11: Kant II — Deontology

Lecture 12: Aristotle — Virtue ethics

PART 4: HOW YOU RELATE TO OTHERS

Lecture 13: Respecting Rights — The trolley problem

Lecture 14: What You Owe to Needy Strangers

Lecture 15: What You Owe to Future People

Lecture 16: What You Owe to Non-Human Animals

Course Staff

Caspar Hare

Professor of Philosophy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tamar Schapiro

Associate Professor of Philosophy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kieran Setiya