Midterm Exam

Just a reminder: the midterm exam is Friday, November 9th. It's worth 15% of your overall grade, and will cover everything we've done in class so far:

• Doing Philosophy
• Understanding and Evaluating Arguments
• Moral Skepticism vs. Moral Realism
• Divine Command Theory
• Natural Law Theory
• Utilitarianism
• Kant's Ethics
• Virtue Ethics
• Ethics of Care and Feminist Criticisms of Traditional Theories

You should be capable of briefly explaining each theory in your own words and briefly explaining the one or two criticisms of each theory that we discussed in class.  You also should be able to explain how to use each theory in ethical decision making--that is, explain what each theory would say we should do in some specific ethical dilemma outlined on the test.

The test is a mix of short-answer questions, argument evaluations, and essays. You'll have all 50 minutes of class to take it.

Moral Factoids

Here are some more links on the debate between moral skepticism and moral realism.

• Philippa Foot was a great moral philosopher who sadly passed away last year.  She spent a lot of her career arguing for moral realism.  
• An argument against moral skepticism: in an important sense, cultures morally agree more than they disagree.
• Some experimental philosophers are trying to find out whether people actually believe in objective moral truths.
• Who's to say what's right or wrong? How about philosophers?

Quiz You Once, Shame On Me

The first quiz will be held at the beginning of class on Friday, September 28th. You will have about 25 minutes to take it. The quiz is worth 7.5% of your overall grade.

There will be three sections: the first section is on evaluating arguments, and will look like the group work on evaluating arguments we did in class last week. Then there will be a section with 5 specific claims that you will have to identify as either subjective or objective.  The final section will consist of 3 or 4 short answer questions on the topic of moral skepticism and moral realism (Are there objectively correct answers to moral questions?) These questions will be based on our class discussions of chapters 19 and 21 from the BLUE  book and chapter 21 from the YELLOW book.

Relative to You, But Not to Me

Here are some links on our first topic: are there objectively correct and incorrect answers to moral questions?

• Cartoon T-Rex also says, "Beware of the relativist fallacy!"
• Philosopher Jesse Prinz offers a defense of moral relativism. 
• An interview with moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who supports a version of moral relativism.
• A pretty severe criticism of Haidt's defense of relativism.
• (Haidt gave a cool TED talk on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives.)
• A detailed overview of various versions of moral skepticism from my favorite free online philosophy encyclopedia.
• That encyclopedia's entry on moral relativism.
• (Yes, there is more than one free online philosophy encyclopedia. Here's another encyclopedia's entry on moral relativism.)