Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the question of
how to live. Revolving around that question is a cluster of other
questions central to ethics: What is good? What is right? What is
morally permitted, required, or prohibited? And what is it that
determines whether certain actions are morally right or morally
wrong? Or, alternatively, is there anything that determines whether
certain actions are morally right or morally wrong—or are the truths
of moral judgments simply relative to individuals or societies?

In this class, we will consider how some ethical theories construct
answers to these questions. Divine Command Theory, for example,
claims that morality issues from God’s commands. Moral relativism,
as the name suggests, claims that moral evaluations are true or
false only relative to some evaluator. We will scrutinize these
claims. We will also look closely at the two most dominant modern
ethical theories, Utilitarianism and Kantian Ethics. Finally we will
consider whether these theories do indeed provide insight and
guidance in answering the all-important questions of what to do and,
more broadly, how to live. To that end, we will use these
theoretical frameworks to examine some real life ethical problems
throughout the course. Ethical problems we might consider include
the following: Are we ever morally permitted or morally required to
lie? Are we morally required to give money to famine victims? Are we
ever morally permitted or morally required to kill the innocent?

This is a philosophy course, and, although no prior experience with
philosophy is required, you should be aware that we will be doing
close and critical reading of challenging (and fascinating!)
philosophical texts. You will be graded on the basis of attendance
and participation, weekly quizzes, 2-3 short writing assignments,
and a midterm and final exam. The texts for the course are J.S.
Mill’s Utilitarianism, Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics
of Morals, and a selection of readings available on E-Reserves. If
you have any questions about the course, feel free to email the
instructor at amcaninc@indiana.edu.