PHIL363 SP27

Ethical Theory
Dr. Max Rosenkrantz
Tuesdays and Thursdays  ·  12:30pm–1:45pm  ·  LA5–246

This course is concerned with the following questions:

  • Are ethical claims true?
  • If they are true, what makes them true?
  • If they are true, how are they known to be true?
  • If they are not true, what meaning do they have? Emotive? Prescriptive? Or perhaps no meaning at all?

In the first part of the course we will pursue these questions by reading (a bit of) Hume and (a lot of) Kant. In the second part we will turn to important 20th century authors: H. A. Prichard, C. L. Stevenson, and J. L. Mackie. We will also read authors with three-initials in their name. Welcome to my syllabus, G. E. M. Anscombe. We will not read anything by anyone who has a complete first name. (Sorry, Phillipa Foot and Roderick Firth, you’re out.)

GE/GR areas: upper-division C (Humanities), upper-division D (Social Sciences), WI (Writing)

[Back up to current course descriptions]