哲學資料特別專題

PHI 4423 Special Topics : Philosophy Readings (Advanced topic in contemporary moral philosophy)

Introduction:

This course will study some of the best works in moral philosophy produced in the past ten years or so in the English-speaking world. In particular, we will read works by T. M. Scanlon, Frances Kamm, Jeff McMahan. These works will be in the fields of normative ethics, applied ethics, and to some extent meta-ethics.

We will study about four of the following topics: (1) Means and ends; (2) the doctrine of double effort (or the Trolley Problem); (3) aggregation; (4) blame; (5) moral status, and if time permits (6) war and terrorism.

Readings for the course will be drawn mostly from:

T. M. Scanlon, What We Owe to Each Other .

T. M. Scanlon, Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame .

Frances Kamm, Intricate Ethics .

Frances Kamm, Morality, Mortality , Volume 1 and 2.

Jeff McMahan, The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life .

Jeff McMahan, Killing in War .

Pre-requisite:

Any undergraduate student who wishes to take this course should have already taken a course in or related to ethics, applied ethics or political philosophy.

Course requirements:

Readings ; presentations; discussion; papers.