Doing Right By Others
What Do I Owe to Others?
Isn’t Morality all Relative
In this unit, we are going to explore how living a moral life might contribute to living a meaningful live. That question might not matter much though if all of morality is just relative, if there is nothing that is always right and always wrong. In this lesson, we will consider whether there are good arguments for thinking that morality is not relative but is instead objective.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Be able to articulate the case for saying that our ordinary moral thinking commits us to an objective moral standard
- Understand the motivations for thinking that morality is a matter of human convention or custom
- Reflect on whether you think that morality is ultimately objective
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- What are some practices from this interactive essay that would have been morally unacceptable in our culture?
- Does C.S. Lewis think that people are consistent in denying that there is a Law of Right and Wrong? Why or why not?
- C.S. Lewis argues that even though some people might deny there is a moral law, they still feel guilty about the things that they have done wrong. Is this a good argument that morality is not relative?
- How does C.S. Lewis respond to the point that we are all just taught right and wrong by our parents? How does he argue that this does not lead to moral relativism?
Ponds and Poverty
What’s your moral code? According to Utilitarians, the key to acting morally is to do whatever will alleviate suffering and promote pleasure in the world. As a result, anyone that can feel pain or pleasure deserves your moral consideration. ; And we might be called upon to make some significant sacrifices if we want to make the world a better place.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Be able to explain the utilitarian’s Greatest Happiness principle and to apply it to particular cases
- Be able to articulate at least one objection to utilitarian approaches to ethics
- Articulate the extent to which your own moral views align with those of the utilitarian
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- What is the Greatest Happiness Principle? What is Utilitarianism?
- What is the difference between higher and lower pleasures?
- In the trolley problem, would Utilitarianism advise you to keep the trolley on the track with five people or switch the trolley to the track with one person?
- Be able to explain the objection that Utilitarianism does not consider motives. Did you find this to be a convincing objection?
It’s All About Virtue
The utilitarians think your moral success depends on the outward consequences of your actions. Today we look at a different theory, one that assumes that the most important part of being moral is forming your own character. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle makes the case that the moral life is all about building the virtues. Even though pleasure comes with living the good life, it is not the thing that we should aim for when we try to live a meaningful life.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Understand the key premises of Aristotle’s function argument
- Be able to compare Utilitarian ethics with a Virtue ethics approach
- Consider whether you are more inclined to agree with Aristotle or Mill on how to live a good life
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- In what work did Aristotle lay out his views on living a moral life?
- What is the difference between final and instrumental value? Does Aristotle think that happiness has final value or instrumental value?
- What is the conclusion of Aristotle’s function argument?
- Aristotle thinks that living a good life requires living virtuously. How do we define virtue in the reading? Does Aristotle think that virtue is a deficiency, an excess, or something else?
Betting on God
We have looked at both arguments for and against God’s existence. Blaise Pascal, however, is not necessarily concerned with the results of those arguments. Instead, he argues that we should live as if God exists regardless of whether or not we have a good argument that he does. Would you take Pascal’s Wager?
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Understand Pascal’s use of prudential reasoning to support the rationality of believing in God/practicing a religion
- Explain Pascal’s decision matrix for believing in God
- Decide whether you should follow Pascal in living as if God exists
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- What is pragmatism?
- According to Pascal, which bet ends up better whether or not God exists?
- How does Pascal use the possibility of infinite pleasure in heaven? What role does this play in his reasoning?
- What does Pascal recommend for those who find it difficult to believe in God?
God and Morality
We have now seen three moral views, one that is based on maximizing pleasure (Utilitarianism), and one that is focused on building the virtues (Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics), and another that emphasizes moral duty (Deontology). Today we’ll be considering the view that right and wrong come from God. We previously considered whether or not morality was objective, and it was difficult to see how, if morality is just a matter of opinion, it could ever be objective. Divine Command Theory attempts to answer this questions by grounding the moral code in God’s commands.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Understand Divine Command Theory and how it hopes to account for the objectivity of morality
- Be familiar with the problems raised by Euthrphro Dilemma
- Decide whether you think that God’s commands are a good basis for morality
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- What analogy does the author give for thinking that the moral law was given to us by God?
- What is one concrete example of Divine Command Theory from the essay?
- According to the reading, what are two objections to Divine Command Theory?
- Explain the Euthyphro dilemma in your own words. What is the problem if God commands things that are already morally good? What is the problem if things are not good or bad until God commands them?
Escape Your Cave
Plato was Socrates’s most famous student and was deeply influenced by his views of how the love of truth fits in with the good life. In this class session, we will introduce you to Plato’s most famous dialogue — The Republic — which features Socrates’ in his questioning element. We’ll read the famous Allegory of the Cave and discuss different views we might have to “converting” others in a philosophical debate.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Understand Plato’s vision of truth in the Allegory of the Cave
- Consider how truth can often be transformative
- Debate whether we have moral obligations to “return to the cave” as Plato suggests at the end of the dialogue.
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- In the Allegory of the Cave, what first happens to those who emerge from the cave? Are they able to comprehend the truth?
- Does Plato think that we should return to the cave once we are enlightened? Why or why not?
- What happens to those who are enlightened when they return to the cave? Is there testimony accepted by those who remained in the cave?
Is Our Universe Designed by God
We have already looked at Anselm’s Ontological Argument, but the Ontological Argument is not the only potential reason to think God exists. There are also arguments that the universe has been designed by a creator, and today we will examine the currently popular argument for fine-tuning, the thought that a designer made our universe in a special way so that it was well-suited to life.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Understand the fine-tuning argument for God’s existence
- Consider the multiverse objection to fine-tuning
- Compare the strength of the fine-tuning argument to Anselm’s Ontological Argument
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- What is fine-tuning?
- If the universe is fine-tuned, how is this an argument for God’s existence?
- What do advocates of the fine-tuning argument have to say about Darwinian evolution?
- What is the multiverse hypothesis? How does it provide an alternative to fine-tuning?
Why is There Evil?
In this session we consider natural a-theology: arguments that no rational person should believe that a god exists. In particular, we will focus on the Problem of Evil. To guide our thinking, we will consider some real world tragedies and the burden that theists have in understanding them.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Understand the philosophical “problem of evil.”
- Be able to articulate some of the leading theodicies
- Decide whether you think that the existence of evil shows that there is no God
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- Explain how the problem of evil arises. Why think that the problem of evil undermines the existence of an all-good God?
- What is a theodicy?
- How does the Free Will theodicy attempt to explain how God could allow evil?
- What theodicies were discussed in the reading? Which of these did you think was the strongest?
Reject Religion
Nietzsche thinks unshackling yourself from organized religion is an essential step to living well. In this class we’ll explore Nietzsche’s debunking theory about the origin of religious belief and why he thinks that religion hold us back from living our best life.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Understand what a genealogical argument is and how that differs from a typical philosophical argument
- Consider Nietzsche’s debunking argument of Christianity and its ability to explain our current moral perspective
- Decide to what extent you think that Nietzsche is right about the origins of our religious worldview
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- What is a genealogy? How does a genealogical argument differ from a typical philosophical argument?
- What is the difference between Noble and Ignoble people?
- How do the Ignoble people use morality to gain power over the Nobles?
- Where does religion come in? How does an alliance between the Ignoble and the priestly class create the concept of sin?
It’s All About Duty
We have now seen two moral views, one that is based on maximizing pleasure (Utilitarianism), and one that is focused on building the virtues (Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics). Today we’ll be considering a view that emphasizes your moral duties. Immanuel Kant is famous for believing that rationality is the basis for morality — the most important focus of ethical decision-making is respecting the freedom and dignity of rational beings. He also gives us a theory of inviolable moral imperatives — rules you must follow, no matter what, to do what is right. Today we will discuss whether we have inviolable moral duties and the importance of freedom and rational choice in living the good life.
Goals
By the end of the lecture, you will:
- Appreciate the importance of the good will and acting from duty in Kant’s ethical view
- Consider whether you have inviolable duties and how those might fit into your philosophical apology
- Discuss the different ways that Kantians and utilitarians defend moral obligations
Do This:
Complete these questions in your notes before you come to class. Once you have completed them, you will be ready for anything that HQ Trivia throws at you!
- According to Kant’s ethical views, what makes a will a good will?
- Which moral actions does Kant think you should get credit for? The one’s that are done from inclination? Those done from a mixture of inclination and duty? Something else?
- What does it mean to make the maxims you act by into universal moral laws?
- Does Kant think suicide is morally permissible? What about making false promises? Why or why not?