COURSE DESCRIPTION:
What sort of person am I? What sort of person ought I strive to be? In this course, we will explore the notions of character and virtue from both ancient and modern perspectives. The first part of the course will focus on an articulation of the structure of ancient virtue ethics, in order to contrast its emphasis on the notion of character with traditional deontological and consequentialist theories. The second part will focus on particular issues and controversies in contemporary virtue ethics, including the action-guiding force of virtue theoretic concepts, the legitimacy of ethical naturalism, and the empirical viability of the notion of character.
TEXTS:
Required
Aristotle, 2000, Nicomachean Ethics, transl. T. Irwin, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Annas, J., 1993, The Morality of Happiness, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hursthouse, Rosalind, 1999, On Virtue Ethics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Recommended
Crisp, R. and M. Slote (eds.), 1997, Virtue Ethics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MacIntyre, A., 1985, After Virtue, London, Duckworth, 2nd Edition.
Russell, D. 2009, Practical Intelligence and the Virtues, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Snow, N., 2010, Virtue as Social Intelligence, New York: Routlegde.
REQUIREMENTS:
There will be six one-page paper assignments, of which you must complete five, and one long final research paper. The questions for the one-page papers will focus on a significant theoretical aspect of virtue ethics, and we will be discussing our responses in class. Attendance is also mandatory; if you miss more than 4 class meetings, you will not be allowed to hand in a final paper.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
• Understand the main structural components of an ethics of virtue
• Compare the virtue ethical approach with other approaches to morality
• Articulate the main strengths and weaknesses of virtue ethics
• Compare and contrast different approaches within virtue ethics
• Write a substantive research paper, dealing with a core issue in contemporary virtue ethics.