This course discusses contemporary moral issues in the context of ethics and political philosophy. Often, when people disagree about an issue such as abortion or welfare, they disagree not only about the facts but about basic ethical issues. In this course we will ask some basic ethical questions, investigate answers proposed by important moral and political philosophers, and think about what those answers mean for contemporary public problems. We will consider the views of Aristotle, Milton, Burke, and Mill, applying them to the issue of drug legalization.
Some philosophers think that the right thing to do is whatever is, in the long run, for the best.
Still others stress virtues. We will look at Aristotle, Kant, Bentham, and Mill, testing their views on issues of sexual behavior and the environment. We will turn to Burke, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Mill for answers, and apply our insights to controversies over abortion and capital punishment. We will examine Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Rawls, and Nozick for answers in theory, and consider issues of welfare and affirmative action for answers in practice.