Morality and the Good Life: An Introduction to Ethics

PHIL 14 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

You probably want to live the best life for yourself. But what would that look like? Feeling pleasure, and avoiding pain? Having your desires satisfied? Maybe achieving knowledge, or securing fulfilling relationships? You might also care about living a moral life. But what would that look like? What actions are morally right or wrong, and what makes them that way? In this introduction to ethics, we'll begin by looking at three important theories of the good life: the pleasure theory, the desire-satisfaction theory, and the pluralist theory. We'll then turn to moral theories, investigating the relative strengths and weaknesses of those views that focus only on our actions' consequences, and those that reject this approach. In closing, we'll consider questions about the status of morality. What kind of judgment are we making when we say, for example, that something is morally wrong? Are there moral facts awaiting our discovery? If there are, how did they come to be - are they determined by humans and varying across cultures, like facts about the law or etiquette? Or perhaps determined by God? Or could they somehow have not been determined by anyone, standing as fundamental facts about reality?