The philosophical study of ethics is the study of what human behaviour ought to be. In the social sciences or in history, you learn about human behaviour as it actually occurs or has occurred. In philosophy, however, we are concerned not primarily with what people actually do but with what they should do or ought to do. What is the morally right thing to do? What sort of person is a good person, morally or ethically? How ought we to live our lives? These are the sorts of questions we attempt to answer in ethics. Accordingly, we shall attempt to accomplish two goals. First, we shall try to learn why we should behave in a moral or an ethical way, that is, we shall study ethical theory. This is the goal for the first part of the course, which comprises the Fall Term (from September to Christmas). In this first part of the course, we study the four most important ethical theories: Aristotelian (or virtue) ethics; an ethics based upon rights; Kantian (or deontological) ethics, and Utilitarian ethics. From Aristotle, we learn an ethical theory according to which we ought to behave in a moral way because moral behaviour (rather than immoral behaviour) makes us better or happier human beings. Along with Aristotle, we read some Thomas Aquinas, who completes Aristotle’s doctrine in several important ways. From John Locke, we learn that ethical behaviour is a matter of exercising our own individual rights and of respecting the rights of others. From Kant, we learn an ethical theory according to which we ought to behave morally simply because we have a duty to do so. Our duty to behave morally, according to Kant, has nothing to do with our becoming better or happier human beings. Finally, from John Stuart Mill, we learn Utilitarian ethics, according to which we should behave in a morally good way in order to secure the greatest amount of pleasure for the greatest number of people.
      Our second goal, pursued in the second part of the course (from January until April), is to apply the theory that we have learned to specific moral problems. We shall examine problems such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, war and pacifism, sexual ethics, pornography and free speech, the environment, capitalism, and so forth, to attempt to determine what is morally right and wrong. To do this, we must apply the theory that we will have learned in the first term to the specific moral problems. Only with a coherent answer to the question of why we should behave in a moral way can we answer the further question of what is good or bad in the pressing moral problems we face today.
      We begin the first part of the course with Plato’ Gorgias. This work helps to introduce us to the study of ethical theory, in part because it raises the fundamental problem of whether we should be ethical at all. In a very forceful way, Plato argues that either we recognize that our behaviour should be guided by ethical theory or, if not, we are subject to control by whoever has the most power. Either our behaviour is guided by ethics or by brute power. In seeing this choice, Plato would have us see the importance of the philosophical investigation of ethics. The study of Plato leads naturally into the study of Aristotle, which follows. Six credits

2004-5 Syllabus