Moral Motivation
PHIL 344
Spring 2013 not offered
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In this seminar, students will explore the systematic philosophical problem surrounding moral motivation and cultivate their own informed stance toward it. The problem is this: Moral expectations and ideals must be in some sense realistic or realizable; otherwise, they threaten to become irrelevant to ordinary lives. Yet morality always implicitly challenges our actual inclinations and habits. Taking morality seriously means holding myself and others to normative ideals and constraints even when we do NOT in any sense "feel like it." So, how can it be realistic to expect or demand that people do what they are, in fact, not motivated to do? Is it helpful--or misguided--to insist that morality has something like reason on its side? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA PHIL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (PHIL-Philosophy) |
Major Readings:
List of texts tentatively includes Plato, GORGIAS; Hume, ENQUIRY CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALS; Foot, NATURAL GOODNESS; Smith, THE MORAL PROBLEM; Various recent articles from philosophy journals and books.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Participants will post weekly short essays reflecting on some argument within the readings. Each student will lead discussion once during the semester, and develop an original line of response to this literature in a midterm and final essay. |
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