University of Kansas, Fall 2003
Philosophy 672: History of Ethics
Ben Eggleston—eggleston@ku.edu

History of Ethics

Description: A study of four of the most influential works in the history of moral philosophy: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, and John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism. Throughout, we will seek both plausible interpretations of these texts and defensible critical evaluations of the views and theories they express. In addition, we will consider the relationships among these writers’ views and the historical trajectory that they trace.

Class Schedule: M, W, F, 9:30–10:20, in 201 Joseph R. Pearson Hall

Requirements/Grading:

Here are the factors that will determine your overall grade, and their weights:

For each of the four books, there will be a test and a paper assignment, and for each book, you can choose which to do—as long as you end up having done two tests and two papers.

Work will be graded in accordance with the university’s grading system, as stated in article 2, section 2 of the of the University Senate Rules and Regulations.

In addition, I should note here that I take academic misconduct, especially cheating on tests and plagiarizing papers, extremely seriously, and am generally disposed to impose the harshest permissible penalties when it occurs. To enable you to meet my expectations in this regard and to do so without fear of inadvertently falling short of them, I will provide clear and specific guidance as to what does and does not constitute academic misconduct in advance of tests and when papers are assigned. Meanwhile, you may consult article 2, section 6 of the University Senate Rules and Regulations for university policy in regard to this matter.

If you have a disability for which you may be requesting special services or accommodations for this course, be sure to contact Disability Resources (22 Strong Hall / 864-2620 (V/TTY)), if you have not already done so, and have that office send me a letter documenting the accommodations to which you are entitled. Please also see me privately, at your earliest convenience, so that I can be aware of your situation and can begin to prepare the appropriate accommodations in advance of receiving the letter from Disability Resources.

Finally, you should feel free to come by my office (3070 Wescoe Hall) at any time. I have office hours on Fridays from 1:30 to 2:20, but you are also welcome to stop by at other times, either with an appointment or without. I spend most of the work week in and around my office, so your chances of finding me should be reasonably high; and although in rare cases I may have to ask you to come back at another time, in general I will be happy to speak to you at your convenience.

Books to buy:

I strongly encourage you to buy the four main books for this course. For increased accessibility, however, I have endeavored to make them available at the reserve desk at Watson library. Following are text details and library status:

Background reading:
Course materials on the web:

Course documents, including this syllabus, will be available on the web site for the course, the URL of which is

http://people.ku.edu/~be75/courses/historye2

(If you don’t want to type in this whole thing, you can stop after ‘be75’—at which point you’ll be at my personal web site—and then follow the links to the web site for this particular course.)

Class notes, paper assignments, information about tests, and other useful materials will be posted at this site. The syllabus is also one of the pages at the above site, and since it will probably be revised and elaborated as the course progresses, I encourage you to check it online from time to time, instead of relying on a hard copy.

One thing that will not be posted on the web site is your record of grades for this course, since I don’t know how to make a web page that will allow each student to view only his or her own grades. So, to allow you to have online access to your grades, I’ll be entering your grades into the “online gradebook” at the Blackboard site for this course (if you’re not already logged in, then log in here; once you get to the Blackboard site for the course, click on ‘Tools’, then ‘View Grades’). Note that although Blackboard provides a shell for all sorts of course-related documents, I am using it only to provide you with access to your grades; all course-related documents, such as this syllabus, notes, and assignments, will be at the site mentioned above.

E-mail distribution list:

I’ve had the KU computer folks set up an e-mail distribution list for the course, and its address is

phil672_22035fa03_dl@mail.ku.edu

I’ve asked that it be set up so that not only I, but also you, can use it, so that you can communicate with everyone in the class (including me) whenever you are so inclined.

In general, I’ll try to mention everything important (whether substantive or procedural) in class. But at times, I may use the e-mail distribution list to send you information that you will be responsible for having or acting on, so it is your responsibility to make sure that you read mail that I send to this list. You can do this by making sure that you (1) have an e-mail address, (2) are registered for the course (because this list is updated every night to reflect current enrollment, taking account of drops and adds), and (3) read your e-mail. There is one complication that you should be aware of: if you have both an Exchange e-mail address (e.g., so-and-so@ku.edu) and a non-Exchange e-mail address (e.g., so-and-so@yahoo.com), and you prefer to receive e-mail at the latter address, then mail sent to the e-mail distribution list for the course will not necessarily go to it, even if you have registered it with KU as your primary e-mail address. (This is a minor glitch in the KU distribution-list system.) To deal with this problem, either check your Exchange account as often as your check your non-Exchange account, or arrange for mail sent to your Exchange account to be forwarded to your non-Exchange account. For more information on this problem and how to solve it, see the Exchange Distribution List Primer, question 2: “Some of the people on my list say they’re not getting my list mail. Why?”
Using J-Stor:

Some of the hyperlinks in the schedule below are to articles that are available electronically from the J-Stor online journal archive. J-Stor’s home page—www.jstor.org—can be accessed by anyone, but the contents of its archives cannot be legitimately accessed without a subscription. KU has a subscription, and you can use this subscription to access the J-Stor archive in either of two ways:

  1. While using a computer with a KU IP address (which I imagine would be any of the on-campus computers—e.g., in the computer labs, in the libraries, etc.), just click on the link for the article you’re interested in. It should appear with no problem.
  2. While using a non-KU computer, follow these steps:
    1. Go to http://www2.lib.ku.edu:2065/.
    2. Unless you are already logged into the KU libraries’ server, you will be confronted with a log-in screen. Log in with your KU username and password.
    3. When the J-Stor screen appears, use “Search” or “Browse” to find the article, based on the bibliographic information supplied below.

Once you have the article on the screen, you will probably want to print it. Look for the gray “PRINT” link at the top of the page you’re viewing, and click on it. You’ll then be given further instructions and links. In order to print J-Stor articles, the computer you’re using needs to have installed on it either (1) the Adobe Acrobat Reader (installed on most or all campus computers, and downloadable free from Adobe; see the link on my home page) or (2) J-Stor’s own printing application (details available with J-Stor’s instructions for printing; click on “Set your printing preferences” after clicking on the “PRINT” link).

Schedule:

August 22:

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics:

An overview of Aristotle’s ethics can be found in the book by MacIntyre mentioned above under “Background reading”—see, in particular, pp. 57–83.

In addition, Bernard Williams’s book (Cambridge University Press, 1985—also on reserve in Watson library; ask for call no. BJ1012.W52 1985) has a chapter on Aristotle’s ethics: chapter 3, “Foundations: Well-Being” (pp. 30–53). In this chapter Williams criticizes Aristotle’s approach to ethics, and he presupposes familiarity with this approach rather than explaining it, so it is certainly not a summary or introduction. But Williams criticizes Aristotle’s approach to ethics at its most general and abstract level, and as a result Williams articulates surprisingly vividly the fundamental character, or really core ideas, of Aristotle’s approach to ethics. So you might read this chapter in order to get a sense of the basic orientation of Aristotle’s theory, though not the details of its content.

Week 1 (August 25–29):

Week 2 (September 1–5):

Week 3 (September 8–12):

David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature:

Hume is discussed in both of the books mentioned above under “Background reading.” See Rachels, chapter 3 (especially section 3.1 and the last page or so of section 3.5, where Rachels briefly explains Hume’s view before critiquing it), and MacIntyre, pp. 168–175.

An excellent resource for studying Hume’s moral theory in more depth is John Mackie’s influential book (Routledge, 1980—also on reserve; ask for call no. B1499.E8 H855). This book provides both a brief outline of Hume’s theory and nuanced discussions of many of its finer points.

Also, ’s (Harvard University Press, 2000—also on reserve; ask for call no. BJ301.R39 2000) contains five lectures on Hume, spanning 82 pages.

Week 4 (September 15–19):

Week 5 (September 22–26):

Week 6 (September 29–October 3):

Week 7 (October 6–10):

Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals:

You may feel, as you get into Kant’s text, that you are having trouble getting the overall gist of Kant’s theory, or seeing what’s important and what’s not. When this happens, I think it’s a good idea to read some other authors’ accounts of Kant’s theory, in order to get a sense of what people think of when they think of Kant’s theory. I particularly recommend the following items, which I’ve listed in ascending order of, in effect, how much trouble I think each one will be for you to read (where “trouble” is proportional to how involved (or long) the item is, the level of difficulty of the author’s writing, and how much the author seems to presuppose that you know about philosophy in general and Kant’s moral theory in particular). That is, I’ve listed them in the order in which I would think you would want to read them.

  1. pp. 190–192 of the Oxford History of Western Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1994; on reserve—ask for call no. B72.O8 1994). This book has lots of nice pictures; indeed the publisher now appears to be selling it as .
  2. the two chapters on Kant in the book by James Rachels mentioned above, under background reading
  3. pp. xii–xiv and pp. 190–198 in the book by Alasdair MacIntyre mentioned above, under background reading
  4. chapter 5, “The Categorical Imperative,” of Roger Scruton’s little book Kant (Oxford University Press, 1982; on reserve—ask for call no. B2798.S37 1982). The publisher reissued this book in 2001 as .
  5. chapter 4, “Foundations: Practical Reason” (pp. 54–70), of Bernard Williams’s book Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (for information about this book, see above, in the section on Aristotle). As with the chapter on Aristotle’s ethics, Williams’s discussion of Kantian ethics is general and abstract, but it does a good job of conveying the flavor of the theory.
  6. ’s essay . Be warned, though, that at about 13,000 words, it’s not that brief. But it’s good.
  7. the ten lectures on Kant, spanning 183 pages, in Rawls’s Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy (for information about this book, see above, in the Hume section). Rawls was one of the most influential teachers of Kantian ethics in modern times, as well as being the most influential political philosopher of the last half of the twentieth century.

Aside from these, I strongly recommend that you read Korsgaard’s introduction to the edition of the Groundwork that we’re using. I’d suggest reading just the first four and a half pages (pp. vii–xi) of this introduction before reading any of Kant’s text, and then going back and using subsequent parts of Korsgaard’s introduction to help you understand Kant’s text after you’re read it. (The remaining parts of Korsgaard’s introduction are labeled “Section I,” “Section II,” and “Section III,” paralleling Kant’s text.)

For further reading, particularly more-advanced work, see Christine Korsgaard’s .

Week 8 (October 13–17):

Week 9 (October 20–24):

Week 10 (October 27–31):

Week 11 (November 3–7):

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism:

A note on the edition of this book that we’re using: Crisp’s edition of Mill’s Utilitarianism is a wonderful resource, which there are better and worse ways of using. I recommend that you proceed in the following way. First, read “How to Use This Book” (p. 3) in conjunction with the table of contents (p. vii). Second, read sections 1–3 of the “Editor’s Introduction.” Then, start reading the text itself, in conjunction with Crisp’s “Analysis of Utilitarianism” (pp. 36–43). (I wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading every line of the “Analysis” on a first reading of Mill’s text; attending to Crisp’s italicized headings should provide sufficiently detailed guidance.) If you refer to Crisp’s “Notes to Utilitarianism” (pp. 111–150), be careful not to let your attention to them prevent you from keeping up with the main points of Mill’s text. As you go through Mill’s text, you may want to go back and read the corresponding parts of Crisp’s introduction.

Both of the books mentioned above under “Background reading” may be of use in understanding Mill. Rachels has two chapters on utilitarianism (though not on Mill’s utilitarianism specifically), and MacIntyre discusses Mill on pp. 235–243.

A helpful companion to Mill’s text is Crisp’s excellent commentary (Routledge, 1997); on reserve—ask for call no. B1603.U873 C75 1997). You can read the whole thing, or just part of it, for clear and astute interpretation and evaluation of Mill’s essay.

Week 12 (November 10–14):

Week 13 (November 17–21):

Week 14 (November 24–28):

Week 15 (December 1–5):

Week 16 (December 8–12):

Thursday, December 18: final exam (7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.)

(see http://www.registrar.ku.edu/timetable/039finals.shtml for KU’s final-exam schedule)