Fall 2024 | PHIL 5311 Section 001: History of Moral Theories (31819)
- Instructor(s)
- Class Component:
- Lecture
- Credits:
- 3 Credits
- Grading Basis:
- Student Option
- Instructor Consent:
- No Special Consent Required
- Instruction Mode:
- In Person
- Meets With:
- PHIL 4311W Section 001
- Times and Locations:
- Regular Academic Session09/03/2024 - 12/11/2024Mon, Fri 01:00PM - 02:15PMUMTC, West BankBlegen Hall 330
- Enrollment Status:
- Open (0 of 5 seats filled)
- Also Offered:
- Course Catalog Description:
- Is human nature fundamentally selfish or are we sympathetic creatures? What is free will and do we have it? Do moral principles have a rational basis or are our moral judgments expressions of feelings? Should morality be thought of in terms of acting on principle or producing good outcomes? We will focus on these and other questions as they are explored in primary texts from the early modern history of western philosophy. prereq: 1003W or instr consent or GRAD
- Class Description:
- This course pursues a close reading of the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (384 BCE). The Nicomachean Ethics is one of the greatest works not only of ethics, but of philosophy more generally. In approaching this text, our foremost aim shall be to arrive at an understanding and appreciation of it as a seminal contribution to the development of humanism, understood as "the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature" (Werner Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. 1 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1960], p. xxiii).
Our English word "ethics" derives from the Greek word for character (ethos) and Aristotle's central concern in the Nicomachean Ethics is with the question "What kind of character should an education cultivate?" For Aristotle, the cultivation of a good character was related to human well-being. As a treatise on character, the Nicomachean Ethics thus is no less a treatise on how one should live in order to live well, where "living well" connotes both an ethical ideal and a happy life.
In reading Aristotle's work, we are attempting to understand and appreciate thoughts originally expressed not only in a distant language but also, of course, in the distant past. The context in which Aristotle's thought took shape differed in often profound ways from our own context. Yet, the Greek culture that Aristotle represents is widely regarded as having bequeathed subsequent generations, such as our own, works of art, literature, and philosophy that are of timeless value. Distant as we are, then, from Aristotle, we shall do our best to not only understand his thought but to critically assess its relevance for contemporary moral theory and the life it prescribes. - Who Should Take This Class?:
- Students with at least one prior course in philosophy, ideally an introduction to ethical theory (e.g., PHIL1003w), who wish to engage deeply with a seminal work in the canon of a liberal arts education.
- Learning Objectives:
- The goals of the course are to provide students with a previous introduction to philosophy (e.g., PHIL1003w) with the opportunity to engage seriously with Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and to explore questions concerning its place in the history of moral theory. In the pursuit of these goals, students are expected to accomplish the following:
1. Have mastered a body of knowledge and a mode of inquiry2. Have communicated effectively
3. Have acquired skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning
- Grading:
- Participation in Socratic dialogue = 50%Course Paper = 50%
- Exam Format:
- No written exam.
- Class Format:
- Socratic dialogue
- Workload:
According to University policy:
"one credit represents, for the average University undergraduate student, three hours of academic work per week (including lectures, laboratories, recitations, discussion groups, field work, study, and so on), averaged over the semester, in order to complete the work of the course to achieve an average grade. One credit equals 42 to 45 hours of work over the course of the semester (1 credit x 3 hours of work per week x 14 or 15 weeks in a semester equals 42 to 45 hours of academic work). Thus, enrollment for 15 credits in a semester represents approximately 45 hours of work per week, on average, over the course of the semester."
Therefore, this 3-credit course should require an average of 9 hours of work per week to achieve an average grade: 2.5 classroom hours and 6.5 hours of out-of-class hours each week in a 15-week term. This makes for a total of 135 hours of work for this class over the course of the semester. You should not take this course if you cannot make this time commitment.
- Textbooks:
- https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/31819/1249
- Past Syllabi:
- http://classinfo.umn.edu/syllabi/mason043_PHIL4311W_Spring2019.pdf (Spring 2019)
- Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
- 31 December 2018
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