Why be moral?  What is the nature of happiness or the good life?  How should one live?  What makes an action morally right or wrong?  Are moral judgments based on reason or feeling?  Are moral values something we discover or something we create?  

In this course we will consider the answers philosophers have given to these questions.  The course will be divided into three main segments, each dealing with a different period in the history of philosophy, and consequently, with a different set of issues.

We will begin with the ancient period and the works of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and Epictetus.  Here the focus will be on questions about the nature of the good life and human happiness or well-being.  We will then move to the modern period and the works of Hume, Kant and Mill.  The focus here will be on questions about the ground of moral obligation and the basis of our moral judgments.  Finally, we will consider the critiques of traditional ethics by Nietzsche and Sartre.  Here the focus will be on questions about the source of moral values and the nature of human freedom.

Text:  Classics of Moral and Political Theory, 4th Edition, edited by Michael L. Morgan (Hackett Publishing Company, 2006).  ISBN: 9780872207769.  Price: $42.00