The most fundamental principle of morality is: Do good; avoid evil. But this principle immediately raises crucial questions: What is good? Why should we act according to it? How do we determine what is ethically good? This unit introduces students to the foundations of ethics by a critical study of the major approaches to ethics in the Western philosophical tradition – including Socratic ethics, virtue ethics, deontology, natural law theory, and utilitarianism. By drawing on key texts from both ancient and contemporary thinkers, it will examine basic ethical concepts such as virtue, conscience, moral responsibility, moral norms, and the common good. This unit provides a solid grounding for advanced studies in ethics and moral theology.

Prerequisites

none

Requirements

3 hours per week

Assessment

Bibliography

• Aquinas, St. Thomas. Summa Theologica.
• Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Roger Crisp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Baron, Marcia W., Philip Pettit, and Michael Slote. Three Methods of Ethics: A Debate. Great Debates in Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
• Benn, Piers. Ethics. Fundamentals of Philosophy. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1998.
• Copleston, Frederick C. A History of Philosophy. Vols 1–2, 6–8. London: Burns & Oates, 1947–66.
• Deigh, John. An Introduction to Ethics. Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  
• Epicurus. Letter to Menoeceus; Principal Doctrines.
• Hursthouse, Rosalind. On Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. In Practical Philosophy. Translated and edited by Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Mill, John S. Utilitarianism.
• Nietzsche, Friederich W. On the Genealogy of Morality. Rev. ed. Edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson. Translated by Carol Diethe. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Plato. Euthyphro; Gorgias.
• Singer, Peter. How are We to Live? Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest. Melbourne: Text, 1993.