Philosophy & Ethics - D0I86a
Eszter Kollar, Mario Josue Cunningham Matamoros, Helder De Schutter
Week 2: Moral Philosophy and Moral Reasoning...................................................................7
Opening Context................................................................................................................ 7
1. The Point of Moral Philosophy.......................................................................................7
2. Traditions of Moral Philosophy.......................................................................................7
3. The Nature of Moral Inquiry...........................................................................................7
4. Moral Reasoning – Methods and Tools..........................................................................8
(a) Formal Logic............................................................................................................8
(b) Informal Reasoning..................................................................................................8
(c) Thought Experiments & Moral Intuitions...................................................................8
(d) Special Moral Arguments.........................................................................................9
5. Plan of the Book............................................................................................................. 9
6. Chapter Review (Key Learning).....................................................................................9
Week 3 – Free Will and Moral Responsibility........................................................................10
1. Free will and moral evaluation: Why is there a problem?.............................................10
2. What does it mean to have free will?..........................................................................10
3. Schopenhauer’s Challenge to Free Will.......................................................................10
4. Determinism: General Idea..........................................................................................10
5. Sociological Determinism.............................................................................................11
6. Psychological Determinism (Introduced)......................................................................11
7. Physical / Scientific Determinism.................................................................................11
8. Determinism and Moral Responsibility (Premise 2).....................................................11
Aristotle’s conditions....................................................................................................11
9. Incompatibilism............................................................................................................ 12
10. Moral Compatibilism..................................................................................................12
Causal vs moral responsibility.....................................................................................12
11. Frankfurt’s Rejection of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities..................................12
12. Strawson: Responsibility as Social Practice..............................................................12
13. Law, Bentham, and Determinism...............................................................................12
14. Responsibility and the Global Economy.....................................................................13
1. Structural Harm and the Responsibility Problem.....................................................13
2. Limits of the Traditional Responsibility Model..........................................................13
3. Young: Political Responsibility.................................................................................13
4. The Social Connection Model and Social Structures...............................................13
5. The Nadia Case and Structural Injustice.................................................................13
Overall Conclusion......................................................................................................13
Week 4 - The Social Contract...............................................................................................14
1. The Question at Stake.................................................................................................14
2. Plato’s Starting Point: Morality as a Human Compromise............................................14
3. Hobbes and the State of Nature...................................................................................14
4. Morality as a Tool of Power..........................................................................................14
5. Reinterpreting the Contract Positively..........................................................................14
6. Cooperation, Game Theory, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma............................................15
7. Morality as Internalised Cooperation............................................................................15
8. The Problem of Conflicting Interests............................................................................15
9. Rawls’s Reconstruction: Justice as Fairness...............................................................15
a) The Original Position and the Veil of Ignorance......................................................15
b) Rawls’s Two Principles of Justice............................................................................15
c) The Role of Institutions............................................................................................15
d) Connection to the Social Contract...........................................................................16
, 10. Beyond Self-Interest: The Moral Sense of Justice......................................................16
11. Expanding the Moral Aim: From Restraint to Flourishing...........................................16
12. Applying Contract Reasoning to Real Cases.............................................................16
13. Summary of Development..........................................................................................16
14. Central Idea............................................................................................................... 16
Week 5: Consequentialism and Utilitarianism.......................................................................17
1. Introduction: The Core Idea.........................................................................................17
2. The Method of Consequentialist Reasoning.................................................................17
3. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832).....................................................................................17
4. Critiques of Bentham’s Theory.....................................................................................18
5. John Stuart Mill (1806–1873).......................................................................................18
6. Measuring Happiness..................................................................................................19
7. Major Objections to Consequentialism.........................................................................19
8. Application: Global Poverty..........................................................................................19
9. Peter Singer: Effective Altruism and Global Ethics.......................................................19
10. Strengths and Continuing Influence...........................................................................20
Week 6: Kantian Deontology and Onora O’Neill’s Interpretation...........................................21
1. Kant in Context: Reason, Autonomy, and Enlightenment.............................................21
2. Kant’s Critique of Utilitarianism (Five Points)...............................................................21
3. The Good Will – The Core of Morality..........................................................................21
4. Imperatives: Hypothetical vs. Categorical....................................................................21
5. The Categorical Imperative – First Formulation: Universal Law (the “Principle of
Universalizability”)............................................................................................................ 22
6. Maxims and Moral Worth.............................................................................................22
7. The Categorical Imperative – Second Formulation: Humanity as an End....................23
8. Onora O’Neill – “Between Consenting Adults”.............................................................23
a. Three Misinterpretations..........................................................................................23
b. Kantian Alternative – Possible Consent...................................................................23
c. Applications............................................................................................................. 24
............................................................................................................................................. 24
Week 7: Feminism and the Ethics of Gender........................................................................25
1. What is feminism? Aims (slide 2).................................................................................25
2. Basic concepts (slides 4 & 11).....................................................................................25
3. Persistent gender inequalities (slide 5)........................................................................25
4. Two ethical directions (slide 7).....................................................................................25
Ethics of Equality.........................................................................................................25
Ethics of Difference.....................................................................................................25
5. Ethics of Care (slides 8–10).........................................................................................26
Core idea..................................................................................................................... 26
Why this matters..........................................................................................................26
Key features................................................................................................................ 26
The Heinz Dilemma (Gilligan’s example).....................................................................26
Misunderstandings......................................................................................................26
Everyday application...................................................................................................26
6. Patriarchy, Power, and Privilege (slides 12–16)...........................................................26
Patriarchy.................................................................................................................... 26
Sexism (Marilyn Frye).................................................................................................27
Birdcage Analogy........................................................................................................ 27
7. Gender Norms at Work and Home (slides 17–18)........................................................27
A. The Ideal-Worker Norm (Joan Williams).................................................................27
B. Invisible Women (Caroline Criado Perez)...............................................................27
C. Domesticity and Emotional Labour.........................................................................27
What helps.................................................................................................................. 27
, 8. Justice, Gender, and the Family — Susan Moller Okin (slides 19–21).........................27
Okin’s Main Claim.......................................................................................................27
Her Critique of Rawls..................................................................................................28
Why Families Matter for Justice..................................................................................28
Her Conclusion............................................................................................................ 28
9. Two Contemporary Strategies: Lean-in vs Social Reproduction (slides 22–23)...........28
Sheryl Sandberg – Lean In..........................................................................................28
Nancy Fraser – Ethics of Social Reproduction............................................................28
Combined Lesson.......................................................................................................29
10. Beyond the Binary and Intersectionality (slide 24)......................................................29
Judith Butler – Gender Trouble...................................................................................29
Sojourner Truth – Ain’t I a Woman?............................................................................29
Kimberlé Crenshaw – Intersectionality........................................................................29
Broader Implication.....................................................................................................29
Week 8: Ethics of Race and Diversity...................................................................................30
1. Faces of Racism.......................................................................................................... 30
1.1 Interpersonal and Symbolic Forms........................................................................30
1.2 Social and Spatial Dimensions..............................................................................30
1.3 The Racialised Body..............................................................................................30
1.4 Extreme Historical and Contemporary Forms........................................................30
2. Defining Race: Biological and Traditional Conceptions................................................30
2.1 Traditional (Biological) Theory of Race..................................................................30
2.2 Central Criticism....................................................................................................30
3. Conceptions of Race Beyond Biology..........................................................................30
3.1 Racial Eliminativism...............................................................................................30
3.2 Race as a Social Construct...................................................................................31
4. Conceptions of Racism................................................................................................31
4.1 Racism as Ideology...............................................................................................31
4.2 Institutional Racism...............................................................................................31
4.3 Structural Racism..................................................................................................31
5. Race and Justice: Distributive vs Corrective Justice....................................................32
5.1 Distributive Justice................................................................................................32
5.2 Corrective Justice..................................................................................................32
6. Racism in Philosophy and Mills’ Critique......................................................................32
6.1 Mills’ Diagnosis......................................................................................................32
7. Mills’ Hypotheses for Philosophy’s Blindness...............................................................32
7.1 Social Demography of Belief.................................................................................32
7.2 Methodological Limitations....................................................................................32
8. The Racial Contract – Charles Mills.............................................................................32
8.1 Core Idea.............................................................................................................. 32
8.2 Function of the Racial Contract.............................................................................33
8.3 Definition............................................................................................................... 33
9. Mills’ Critique of Rawlsian Justice................................................................................33
9.1 Social Ontology.....................................................................................................33
9.2 Conceptual Map....................................................................................................33
9.3 Theory of History...................................................................................................33
10. Distributive Paradigm and its Limits...........................................................................33
11. Ideal vs Non-Ideal Theory..........................................................................................34
11.1 Ideal Theory (Rawls)...........................................................................................34
11.2 Non-Ideal Theory.................................................................................................34
12. Retrieving Liberalism for Racial Justice – Thomas Shelby.........................................34
12.1 Rawls’ Original Formulation.................................................................................34
12.2 Shelby’s Racial Extension...................................................................................34
, 13. Mills’ Critique of Shelby..............................................................................................34
13.1 Distributive vs Rectificatory..................................................................................34
13.2 Normative Description.........................................................................................34
14. Mills’ Non-Ideal Racial Justice....................................................................................34
14.1 Racially Sensitive Liberalism...............................................................................34
14.2 Modified Veil of Ignorance...................................................................................35
14.3 Aim...................................................................................................................... 35
Week 9 - Ethics of Immigration and Refuge.........................................................................36
I. Framing the Debate: Why Immigration Ethics Matters..................................................36
1. What is at stake?.....................................................................................................36
2. The conventional view.............................................................................................36
3. Borders as coercive.................................................................................................36
4. Three normative assumptions (Slide 6)...................................................................36
II. Open vs Closed Borders: The Philosophical Landscape..............................................36
1. Conceptual meaning...............................................................................................37
III. The Case for Open Borders........................................................................................37
A. Phillip Cole: Right to Exit → Right to Entry (Slide 9)................................................37
B. Joseph Carens: The Ethics of Immigration (Slides 10–13)......................................37
IV. The Case for Closed Borders.....................................................................................38
A. Wellman: Freedom of Association (Slides 15–20)...................................................38
B. Pevnick: Associative Ownership (Slides 21–22)......................................................39
V. Ethics of Refuge.......................................................................................................... 39
A. Scale and context (Slides 24–25)............................................................................40
B. Who is a refugee? (Slides 26–27)...........................................................................40
C. Grounds of State Duties (Slides 28–32)..................................................................40
Week 10 - Ethics of climate change......................................................................................42
1. Climate Protests........................................................................................................... 42
2. Ethical Questions......................................................................................................... 42
3. Basic Moral Framework...............................................................................................42
4. Climate (In)Justice.......................................................................................................42
5. What Should We Do (Collectively as Humanity)?.........................................................43
5.1 Mitigation............................................................................................................... 43
5.2 Adaptation............................................................................................................. 43
5.3 Compensation.......................................................................................................43
5.4 Who should pay?...................................................................................................43
6. What Should I Do (Individual Action)?..........................................................................43
6.1 Private strategies (reduce carbon footprint)...........................................................43
6.2 Collective strategies..............................................................................................43
7. Intergenerational Justice..............................................................................................43
8. Principle of Easy Rescue – Theoretical Challenges.....................................................43
8.1 The duty of rescue (basis).....................................................................................43
8.2 Application to climate change................................................................................44
9. Three Objections to Duty of Rescue (Moellendorf).......................................................44
9.1 Objection 1:........................................................................................................... 44
Non-existent claimant..................................................................................................44
9.2 Objection 2:........................................................................................................... 44
Climate change is not a pure rescue case...................................................................44
9.3 Objection 3:........................................................................................................... 44
Non-identity problem...................................................................................................44
10. Intergenerational Distributive Justice.........................................................................44
10.1 Distributing benefits and burdens of energy use..................................................44
10.2 Critique of utilitarianism.......................................................................................44
10.3 Discounted utilitarianism......................................................................................44
Eszter Kollar, Mario Josue Cunningham Matamoros, Helder De Schutter
Week 2: Moral Philosophy and Moral Reasoning...................................................................7
Opening Context................................................................................................................ 7
1. The Point of Moral Philosophy.......................................................................................7
2. Traditions of Moral Philosophy.......................................................................................7
3. The Nature of Moral Inquiry...........................................................................................7
4. Moral Reasoning – Methods and Tools..........................................................................8
(a) Formal Logic............................................................................................................8
(b) Informal Reasoning..................................................................................................8
(c) Thought Experiments & Moral Intuitions...................................................................8
(d) Special Moral Arguments.........................................................................................9
5. Plan of the Book............................................................................................................. 9
6. Chapter Review (Key Learning).....................................................................................9
Week 3 – Free Will and Moral Responsibility........................................................................10
1. Free will and moral evaluation: Why is there a problem?.............................................10
2. What does it mean to have free will?..........................................................................10
3. Schopenhauer’s Challenge to Free Will.......................................................................10
4. Determinism: General Idea..........................................................................................10
5. Sociological Determinism.............................................................................................11
6. Psychological Determinism (Introduced)......................................................................11
7. Physical / Scientific Determinism.................................................................................11
8. Determinism and Moral Responsibility (Premise 2).....................................................11
Aristotle’s conditions....................................................................................................11
9. Incompatibilism............................................................................................................ 12
10. Moral Compatibilism..................................................................................................12
Causal vs moral responsibility.....................................................................................12
11. Frankfurt’s Rejection of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities..................................12
12. Strawson: Responsibility as Social Practice..............................................................12
13. Law, Bentham, and Determinism...............................................................................12
14. Responsibility and the Global Economy.....................................................................13
1. Structural Harm and the Responsibility Problem.....................................................13
2. Limits of the Traditional Responsibility Model..........................................................13
3. Young: Political Responsibility.................................................................................13
4. The Social Connection Model and Social Structures...............................................13
5. The Nadia Case and Structural Injustice.................................................................13
Overall Conclusion......................................................................................................13
Week 4 - The Social Contract...............................................................................................14
1. The Question at Stake.................................................................................................14
2. Plato’s Starting Point: Morality as a Human Compromise............................................14
3. Hobbes and the State of Nature...................................................................................14
4. Morality as a Tool of Power..........................................................................................14
5. Reinterpreting the Contract Positively..........................................................................14
6. Cooperation, Game Theory, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma............................................15
7. Morality as Internalised Cooperation............................................................................15
8. The Problem of Conflicting Interests............................................................................15
9. Rawls’s Reconstruction: Justice as Fairness...............................................................15
a) The Original Position and the Veil of Ignorance......................................................15
b) Rawls’s Two Principles of Justice............................................................................15
c) The Role of Institutions............................................................................................15
d) Connection to the Social Contract...........................................................................16
, 10. Beyond Self-Interest: The Moral Sense of Justice......................................................16
11. Expanding the Moral Aim: From Restraint to Flourishing...........................................16
12. Applying Contract Reasoning to Real Cases.............................................................16
13. Summary of Development..........................................................................................16
14. Central Idea............................................................................................................... 16
Week 5: Consequentialism and Utilitarianism.......................................................................17
1. Introduction: The Core Idea.........................................................................................17
2. The Method of Consequentialist Reasoning.................................................................17
3. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832).....................................................................................17
4. Critiques of Bentham’s Theory.....................................................................................18
5. John Stuart Mill (1806–1873).......................................................................................18
6. Measuring Happiness..................................................................................................19
7. Major Objections to Consequentialism.........................................................................19
8. Application: Global Poverty..........................................................................................19
9. Peter Singer: Effective Altruism and Global Ethics.......................................................19
10. Strengths and Continuing Influence...........................................................................20
Week 6: Kantian Deontology and Onora O’Neill’s Interpretation...........................................21
1. Kant in Context: Reason, Autonomy, and Enlightenment.............................................21
2. Kant’s Critique of Utilitarianism (Five Points)...............................................................21
3. The Good Will – The Core of Morality..........................................................................21
4. Imperatives: Hypothetical vs. Categorical....................................................................21
5. The Categorical Imperative – First Formulation: Universal Law (the “Principle of
Universalizability”)............................................................................................................ 22
6. Maxims and Moral Worth.............................................................................................22
7. The Categorical Imperative – Second Formulation: Humanity as an End....................23
8. Onora O’Neill – “Between Consenting Adults”.............................................................23
a. Three Misinterpretations..........................................................................................23
b. Kantian Alternative – Possible Consent...................................................................23
c. Applications............................................................................................................. 24
............................................................................................................................................. 24
Week 7: Feminism and the Ethics of Gender........................................................................25
1. What is feminism? Aims (slide 2).................................................................................25
2. Basic concepts (slides 4 & 11).....................................................................................25
3. Persistent gender inequalities (slide 5)........................................................................25
4. Two ethical directions (slide 7).....................................................................................25
Ethics of Equality.........................................................................................................25
Ethics of Difference.....................................................................................................25
5. Ethics of Care (slides 8–10).........................................................................................26
Core idea..................................................................................................................... 26
Why this matters..........................................................................................................26
Key features................................................................................................................ 26
The Heinz Dilemma (Gilligan’s example).....................................................................26
Misunderstandings......................................................................................................26
Everyday application...................................................................................................26
6. Patriarchy, Power, and Privilege (slides 12–16)...........................................................26
Patriarchy.................................................................................................................... 26
Sexism (Marilyn Frye).................................................................................................27
Birdcage Analogy........................................................................................................ 27
7. Gender Norms at Work and Home (slides 17–18)........................................................27
A. The Ideal-Worker Norm (Joan Williams).................................................................27
B. Invisible Women (Caroline Criado Perez)...............................................................27
C. Domesticity and Emotional Labour.........................................................................27
What helps.................................................................................................................. 27
, 8. Justice, Gender, and the Family — Susan Moller Okin (slides 19–21).........................27
Okin’s Main Claim.......................................................................................................27
Her Critique of Rawls..................................................................................................28
Why Families Matter for Justice..................................................................................28
Her Conclusion............................................................................................................ 28
9. Two Contemporary Strategies: Lean-in vs Social Reproduction (slides 22–23)...........28
Sheryl Sandberg – Lean In..........................................................................................28
Nancy Fraser – Ethics of Social Reproduction............................................................28
Combined Lesson.......................................................................................................29
10. Beyond the Binary and Intersectionality (slide 24)......................................................29
Judith Butler – Gender Trouble...................................................................................29
Sojourner Truth – Ain’t I a Woman?............................................................................29
Kimberlé Crenshaw – Intersectionality........................................................................29
Broader Implication.....................................................................................................29
Week 8: Ethics of Race and Diversity...................................................................................30
1. Faces of Racism.......................................................................................................... 30
1.1 Interpersonal and Symbolic Forms........................................................................30
1.2 Social and Spatial Dimensions..............................................................................30
1.3 The Racialised Body..............................................................................................30
1.4 Extreme Historical and Contemporary Forms........................................................30
2. Defining Race: Biological and Traditional Conceptions................................................30
2.1 Traditional (Biological) Theory of Race..................................................................30
2.2 Central Criticism....................................................................................................30
3. Conceptions of Race Beyond Biology..........................................................................30
3.1 Racial Eliminativism...............................................................................................30
3.2 Race as a Social Construct...................................................................................31
4. Conceptions of Racism................................................................................................31
4.1 Racism as Ideology...............................................................................................31
4.2 Institutional Racism...............................................................................................31
4.3 Structural Racism..................................................................................................31
5. Race and Justice: Distributive vs Corrective Justice....................................................32
5.1 Distributive Justice................................................................................................32
5.2 Corrective Justice..................................................................................................32
6. Racism in Philosophy and Mills’ Critique......................................................................32
6.1 Mills’ Diagnosis......................................................................................................32
7. Mills’ Hypotheses for Philosophy’s Blindness...............................................................32
7.1 Social Demography of Belief.................................................................................32
7.2 Methodological Limitations....................................................................................32
8. The Racial Contract – Charles Mills.............................................................................32
8.1 Core Idea.............................................................................................................. 32
8.2 Function of the Racial Contract.............................................................................33
8.3 Definition............................................................................................................... 33
9. Mills’ Critique of Rawlsian Justice................................................................................33
9.1 Social Ontology.....................................................................................................33
9.2 Conceptual Map....................................................................................................33
9.3 Theory of History...................................................................................................33
10. Distributive Paradigm and its Limits...........................................................................33
11. Ideal vs Non-Ideal Theory..........................................................................................34
11.1 Ideal Theory (Rawls)...........................................................................................34
11.2 Non-Ideal Theory.................................................................................................34
12. Retrieving Liberalism for Racial Justice – Thomas Shelby.........................................34
12.1 Rawls’ Original Formulation.................................................................................34
12.2 Shelby’s Racial Extension...................................................................................34
, 13. Mills’ Critique of Shelby..............................................................................................34
13.1 Distributive vs Rectificatory..................................................................................34
13.2 Normative Description.........................................................................................34
14. Mills’ Non-Ideal Racial Justice....................................................................................34
14.1 Racially Sensitive Liberalism...............................................................................34
14.2 Modified Veil of Ignorance...................................................................................35
14.3 Aim...................................................................................................................... 35
Week 9 - Ethics of Immigration and Refuge.........................................................................36
I. Framing the Debate: Why Immigration Ethics Matters..................................................36
1. What is at stake?.....................................................................................................36
2. The conventional view.............................................................................................36
3. Borders as coercive.................................................................................................36
4. Three normative assumptions (Slide 6)...................................................................36
II. Open vs Closed Borders: The Philosophical Landscape..............................................36
1. Conceptual meaning...............................................................................................37
III. The Case for Open Borders........................................................................................37
A. Phillip Cole: Right to Exit → Right to Entry (Slide 9)................................................37
B. Joseph Carens: The Ethics of Immigration (Slides 10–13)......................................37
IV. The Case for Closed Borders.....................................................................................38
A. Wellman: Freedom of Association (Slides 15–20)...................................................38
B. Pevnick: Associative Ownership (Slides 21–22)......................................................39
V. Ethics of Refuge.......................................................................................................... 39
A. Scale and context (Slides 24–25)............................................................................40
B. Who is a refugee? (Slides 26–27)...........................................................................40
C. Grounds of State Duties (Slides 28–32)..................................................................40
Week 10 - Ethics of climate change......................................................................................42
1. Climate Protests........................................................................................................... 42
2. Ethical Questions......................................................................................................... 42
3. Basic Moral Framework...............................................................................................42
4. Climate (In)Justice.......................................................................................................42
5. What Should We Do (Collectively as Humanity)?.........................................................43
5.1 Mitigation............................................................................................................... 43
5.2 Adaptation............................................................................................................. 43
5.3 Compensation.......................................................................................................43
5.4 Who should pay?...................................................................................................43
6. What Should I Do (Individual Action)?..........................................................................43
6.1 Private strategies (reduce carbon footprint)...........................................................43
6.2 Collective strategies..............................................................................................43
7. Intergenerational Justice..............................................................................................43
8. Principle of Easy Rescue – Theoretical Challenges.....................................................43
8.1 The duty of rescue (basis).....................................................................................43
8.2 Application to climate change................................................................................44
9. Three Objections to Duty of Rescue (Moellendorf).......................................................44
9.1 Objection 1:........................................................................................................... 44
Non-existent claimant..................................................................................................44
9.2 Objection 2:........................................................................................................... 44
Climate change is not a pure rescue case...................................................................44
9.3 Objection 3:........................................................................................................... 44
Non-identity problem...................................................................................................44
10. Intergenerational Distributive Justice.........................................................................44
10.1 Distributing benefits and burdens of energy use..................................................44
10.2 Critique of utilitarianism.......................................................................................44
10.3 Discounted utilitarianism......................................................................................44
