PHIL 250

Instructor: Jay Worthy

Course Description

Broadly speaking, ethics tries to generate systematic answers to the question “what should I do?” As simple as the question sounds, it gets quickly complicated by a diversity of potential responses (i.e. various “normative” ethical theories), by disagreements in how to apply these theories to specific cases (i.e. “applied” ethics), and even by disagreements as to the nature and scope of the question in the first place (i.e. “metaethical” issues).In this introductory course, we try to pick up on each of these threads of ethical thinking. We consider metaethical issues, for example, by asking whether the question “what should I do?” can be answered in an objective way that holds for everyone, or whether our answers are a function of subjective beliefs that differ from person to person. We consider normative ethics by examining the general ethical obligations outlined in key theories such as utilitarianism, Kantianism, virtue theory, and contract theory (e.g. Rawls, Scanlon). And all the while, we also apply these theories to current issues such as the ethics of vaccination and vaccine passports, assisted death and end-of-life decisions, our duties to non-human animals, and our obligations in response to climate change.