Lecture Description
Professor Gendler opens with a final criticism of Utilitarianism from Bernard Williams: in some cases, a good person should feel reluctant to do an act which brings about the greatest happiness, even if it is the right thing to do. The second half of the lecture introduces Kant’s deontological moral theory. In contrast to consequentialism, deontology holds that it’s not the outcome of actions that matter for their moral valence, but rather the will of the agent performing such actions. The outlines of Kant’s deontological theory are presented, to be continued in the next lecture.
Course Index
- Introduction
- The Ring of Gyges: Morality and Hypocrisy
- Parts of the Soul I
- Parts of the Soul II
- The Well-Ordered Soul: Happiness and Harmony
- The Disordered Soul: Thémis and PTSD
- Flourishing and Attachment
- Flourishing and Detachment
- Virtue and Habit I
- Virtue and Habit II
- Weakness of the Will and Procrastination
- Utilitarianism and its Critiques
- Deontology
- The Trolley Problem
- Empirically-informed Responses
- Philosophical Puzzles
- Punishment I
- Punishment II
- Contract & Commonwealth: Thomas Hobbes
- The Prisoner's Dilemma
- Equality
- Equality II
- Social Structures
- Censorship
- Tying up Loose Ends
- Concluding Lecture
Course Description
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature pairs central texts from Western philosophical tradition (including works by Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Rawls, and Nozick) with recent findings in cognitive science and related fields. The course is structured around three intertwined sets of topics: Happiness and Flourishing; Morality and Justice; and Political Legitimacy and Social Structures.