Tentative
Instructor: Richard Lee (Office hours)
Course number: PHIL 4123 (ISIS number: 46687, 46688)
Time: MWF 1:30 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Room: Main 204
Brief Description:
Hume wrote that "reason is -- and ought only to be -- the slave of the passions." What was he saying and how does this affect his view of what morality is? Why did Kant think it was wrong to make promises one has no intention of keeping? What are all the kinds of pleasure there are, according to Bentham? What would Aristotle say about the responsibility of a drunk driver for a resultant fatal accident? What's the connection between God and morality, according to Aquinas? What is the essential nature of virtue, according to Aristotle? It is questions of this nature that will be addressed in this course. It will involve a careful examination of thoughts about happiness and right and wrong by the greatest minds in western civilization from the beginning of philosophical thought to 100 years ago. We'll explore the ethical theories of Aristotle, Epictetus, Aquinas, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Mill.
Prerequisites:
One course in philosophy. Apart from that this course is open to all students interested in the foundations of moral right and wrong.
Texts:
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford, 2009): ISBN-10: 0199213615; ISBN-13: 978-0199213610
Epictetus, Handbook (Hackett, 1983): 0915145693
Thomas Aquinas, Treatise on Law (Hackett, 2000): 0872205487
David Hume, Moral Philosophy (Hackett, 2006): ISBN-10: 0872205991; ISBN-13: 978-0872205994
Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (Hackett, 1993): 0-87220-166-X
Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill, The Classical Utilitarians (Hackett, 2003): ISBN-10: 0872206491; ISBN-13: 978-0872206496
Materials available on the web

Other information:

Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 30 November 2010