DESCRIPTION:

This is a doctoral level seminar, open at the 500 level to a limited number of advanced master's students. It consists of close reading and discussion of some of the most important philosophical ethicists of the past generation: Bernard Williams, John Rawls, Charles Taylor, Iris Murdoch, Jeffrey Stout, and Alasdair MacIntyre.

Knowledge: familiarity with some of the best thinking in ethics found in the secular academy. Skills: enhanced ability in moral reasoning and debate. Attitudes: increased appreciation of the role of religious belief in moral reasoning.

This is a bi-level course for advanced master's students and for Ph.D. and Th.M. students. The class will meet weekly for a three-hour session. Most of class time will be devoted to discussion of the readings.

MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. 2nd ed. University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.

__________. Dependent Rational Animals. Open Court, 1999.

Murdoch, Iris. Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. Penguin, 1992.

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Stout, Jeffrey. Ethics after Babel. Beacon, 1988.

Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self. Harvard University Press, 1989.

Williams, Bernard. Morality. Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Careful reading of texts; regular attendance; class participation. Each student will be assigned to lead one class discussion. Master's-level students have the choice of writing three eight-page papers or one 20-page paper. Graduate students: one 20-30 page paper.

Master's students: previous coursework in philosophy or ethics; G.P.A. of 3.5 and permission of instructor.

Elective at master's level. At Th.M. and Ph.D. level, may be counted as either a philosophy or an ethics seminar.

None.