PHIL 210: Moral Thinking

It is important to "do the right thing". But how can anyone tell what "the right thing" is? The aim on this course is to gain an overview of this area of philosophy. We shall examine three main ways of thinking about ethics: those that focus on the outcomes of actions, those that focus on the nature of the actions themselves, and those that focus on the character of the one who acts. We shall also glimpse a couple of emerging alternatives. While we certainly cannot pretend to cover everything that is important in ethical theory, we can hope to gain a good familiarity with several main issues, which can serve as a solid background for more advanced work in ethics, as a resource for thinking about moral issues, and as a piece of general education valuable for understanding certain practical aspects of human life.