We will consider questions including the following:  What is going on when we use words such as “good”, “bad”, “right”, and “wrong”?  Is there a “real” goodness and/or rightness?  If so, what is it?  Would our following of certain rules guarantee that we do the right thing?  If so, what are these rules?  Does acting rightly require having good intentions?  What makes a life good?  What is happiness?  What is pleasure?  Do we necessarily do whatever we think it best that we do?  Do we necessarily do whatever we most want to do?  What is moral responsibility?  What sort of freedom, if any, does moral responsibility require?  We will also consider the roles that possible answers to these questions play in current moral debates over the rightness or wrongness of practices such as euthanasia, abortion, and capital punishment.

Our readings will be drawn from the anthology The Ethical Life: Fundamental Readings in Ethics and Moral Problems, edited by Russ Schafer-Landau (OUP 2009 [ISBN 9780195377699, available new at Amazon.com for $40.46]).

Students will be required to submit one medium-length written essay; the final exam will consist of several short essays.