Welcome!
We all face a set of tricky ethical questions when going about our lives. Some of these directly concern practical decisions we need to make. For example:
Should you be giving more of your resources to people experiencing poverty?
Should you cut back on your energy use, when so many other people aren't?
Is it wrong to eat meat and dairy products, wear leather, or go to the zoo?
If your friend asks you if they should have an abortion, what should you tell them?
Should you be a pro-porn or an anti-porn feminist?
Does it make moral sense to take that job at Facebook, given, you know, Facebook?
Other ethical questions are more abstract: they ask what unifies and grounds our answers to the above kinds of questions. For instance:
Should we try to make everyone as happy as possible?
Does the end always justify the means?
Why is it wrong to lie and break your promises, if it is?
Is ethics fundamentally about following rules, or is it messier than that?
Is there a difference between a happy life and a meaningful life, and if so, which should you aim for?
Finally, we sometimes consider even more abstract questions, about the basis of ethics itself:
What's the relationship between morality and religion?
Do your moral obligations depend on the culture you're raised in?
Is there any such thing as objective moral truth?
If there were such a thing, how could we find out what it is?
This course provides an introduction to moral philosophy. It canvasses a range of historically important approaches to each of the above kinds of questions and helps you apply them to a set of urgent questions that arise in your own life.
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Goals: Upon successful completion of this course, you will have:
1) gained an understanding of what distinguishes ethics from other branches of thought and what distinctive methods philosophers use to study it;
2) familiarized yourself with the work of some of the most important moral philosophers of the past and present;
3) carefully examined and developed your own views on a range of important moral questions and recognized the reasoning behind opposing viewpoints on those questions.
You will also have developed your general skills in:
Interpreting and evaluating philosophical arguments
Justifying and defending your opinions
Expressing yourself clearly and persuasively in oral and written form.
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Prerequisite: None.
Distribution: Religion, Ethics and Moral Philosophy
Course Logistics
Professor: Helena de Bres
Contact: hdebres@wellesley.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/wellesley.edu/helenadebres/home
Office: Founders Hall 320
Class time: Tuesdays and Fridays, 9:55-11:10 a.m, Spring 2024
Office hours: Tuesdays 3:45-4:45; Fridays 11:20-12:20
For most of the semester, you're welcome to drop by during office hours whenever you want, though you're also welcome to book a specific time in the specified ranges in advance and I'll hold it for you.
In the week leading up to an assignment being due, I prefer everyone to set up an appointment in advance, so that we don't have too many people waiting at once.
No need to have a specific question--we can chat about class material, writing, philosophy, or whatever else is on your mind.
If these times don't work for you for some reason, email me and we can try to arrange an appointment at a different hour. When doing this, please specify a set of times you're available, so I don't have to write back to you straight away to ask you for that.
Occasionally we may need to meet over Zoom (at this link): if so, I'll let you know.
Venue: Green Hall 130
Communication:
Outside of class, we'll be communicating via our Google Group, which has this email address: phil-106-01-sp24@wellesley.edu
I'll make all announcements via the Group, and you can also use it to send messages to the class as a whole.
You'll submit your weekly reading responses (instructions here) via the Group too.
You'll submit your assignments to me, anonymized, via email.
Readings:
All readings are articles or extracts from books, available on the course’s Google Drive.
You can find course policies and additional resources at those links right there.
[Website illustrations borrowed from Isabelle Arsenault]