Task:
In a 1500-word essay, respond to ONE of the following:
- Divine Command Theory: “Divine Command Theory is a religiously grounded moral philosophy that undermines some of the core tenets of religious belief.” Critically discuss and evaluate this statement with reference to the Euthyphro Dilemma.
- Moral relativism: The paradox of tolerance is that we must tolerate the intolerant. If we think that morality is relative to our culture, can we judge the morality of other cultures? On what grounds can we do so?
- Metaethics: Choose two of the three theories of morality that are grounded in rationality (i.e. Social Contract Theory, Utilitarianism, and Kantianism). In what way is each theory based on what is rational, and what makes one theory more compelling than the other for determining what is morally right? [You must discuss the rationality of each theory.]
- Social justice: Select a specific example of social injustice. Apply Rawls’ theory of justice to the example and show the implications of your analysis for your chosen problem.
Writing Instructions:
Research: in addition to relevant texts from the course readings, in your essay you should use and refer to roughly 2 to 3 further pieces of research. You should use articles that have been listed on the supplementary readings for each topic, or the extra readings list for the essay. These have all been made available on Leganto. DO NOT use blogs, websites, and other non-academic sources. The ONLY online sources that are appropriate are the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Referencing: You can use any Arts/Humanities style, such as the Harvard, Chicago, or APA styles, and you should be consistent. Your in-text citations MUST include page numbers. Please do not use a numerical referencing style (such as the Vancouver style) that is used in the Sciences. 7. Include a word count at the end. A qualitative marking rubric is included below. Your essay will be graded against this rubric. 8. Please use size 12 font with 1.5 or double line spacing.
Steps to compose the essay:
- You need to write a short introduction in which you identify the issue at hand and you briefly summarise in a sentence or two what you will be arguing. You should tell your reader what your position will be and give an outline of how you will argue for your position.
- The body of your essay should provide a discussion of what you take to be the most important reasons that can be given in favour of the claim you are arguing for, as well as a consideration of some of the main objections that can be made to your claim. Your discussion should make explicit reference to the theory that the claim relates to and to the relevant readings from the course.
- You should also undertake and integrate into your essay some further relevant research. You should use this research to help you to: understand the relevant issues and claims, highlight relevant points in previous discussions of these issues, develop arguments in favour of your view, develop objections to your view, or develop responses to objections to your view. You should use 3 appropriate academic peer-reviewed sources from the supplementary reading list for each topic, or the extra reading list for the essay as well as the relevant required readings from the unit readings. As a guide, you should use the required readings as well as 2 to 3 extra readings. You may use more if you wish.
- You need to write a brief conclusion in which you recapitulate what you have discussed in the essay, and most importantly, what conclusion you came to. You need to reiterate strongly, in simple words, whether you agree with the claim or not.
Suggestive references for the response:
These are some suggested readings to assist you in your research essay. You should also
consult the supplementary readings. As a general Philosophy resource, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a peer-reviewed source (unlike most other internet-based resources) and is suitable as a resource:
https://plato.stanford.edu
[Remember that you need to use peer-reviewed academic sources for your research.]
Useful anthologies with many papers on the various topics:
[Remember that you need to reference the papers you refer to, not the collected edition.]
Shafer-Landau, R. (Ed.) 2013. Ethical Theory: an anthology, 2nd edition. Chichester, West
Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Singer, P. (Ed.) 1993. A Companion to Ethics, 1st Edition. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell Publishing.
Singer, P. (Ed.) 1994. Ethics, 1st edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [No online copy]
White, J. (Ed). 2006. Contemporary Moral Problems, 6th Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth. [No
online copy]
Useful introductions to ethics:
Rachels, S. and J. Rachels. 2015. The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 8th Edition. Dubuque:
McGraw-Hill. [Any edition is fine. This is the online copy. I have used an earlier edition in
the lectures.]
Williams, B. 1993. Morality: An Introduction to Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Religion and morality
Adams, R. 1979. “Divine Command Metaethics Modified Again.” Journal of Religious Ethics 7
(1): 66–79.
Craig, W.L., and W. Sinnott-Armstrong. 2004. God? A Debate Between a Christian and an
Atheist. New York: Oxford University Press. [No online copy]
Craig, W.L., and W.Sinnott-Armstrong. 2013. “God and Objective Morality: A Debate.” IN
Ethical Theory: An Anthology, 2nd Edition. Edited by Rush Shafer-Landau. Chichester,
West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hare, John. 2014. “Religion and Morality.” IN The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Winter 2014 Edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta, URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-morality/>
Quinn, P. 2000. “Divine Command Theory.” IN The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, edited
by Hugh LaFollette. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishing.
Weilenberg, E. 2005. “God and Morality.” Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cultural diversity and moral relativism
Harman, Gilbert. 1977. The Nature of Morality: an Introduction to Ethics. New York: Oxford
University Press. (Chapters 5, 8, 9) [Only chapter 9 online.]
Harman, Gilbert. 2013. “Moral Relativism Defended.” IN Ethical Theory: An Anthology, 2nd
Edition. Edited by Rush Shafer-Landau. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mackie, J. L. 1977. Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. Harmondsworth, New York: Penguin.
(Chapter 1)
Mackie, J.L. 2013. “The Subjectivity of Values.” IN Ethical Theory: An Anthology, 2nd Edition.
Edited by Rush Shafer-Landau. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Taylor, Paul. 1987. “Ethical Relativism” IN Moral Philosophy, edited by George Sher. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Wong, David. 1984. Moral Relativity. University of California Press. [Unavailable]
Egoism, Self-Interest and Social Contract Theories
Baier, Kurt. 1993. “Egoism.” IN A Companion to Ethics, edited by Peter Singer. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gauthier, David. 1987. Morals by Agreement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Unavailable]
Gauthier, David. 2013 “Why Contractarianism?” IN Ethical Theory: An Anthology, 2nd Edition.
Edited by Rush Shafer-Landau. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 2006. “Egoism and Altruism.” IN The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Vol.
2, edited by Paul Edwards. New York: MacMillan.
MacKinnon, B. 2007. “Egoism.” Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues. Belmont, California: Thomson/Wadsworth. (Chapter 3)
Rachels, James. 1993. “Egoism and Moral Skepticism.” IN Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life:
Introductory Readings in Ethics, 3rd Edition, edited by C. Sommers and F. Sommers.
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Singer, Peter. 2011. ‘Why Act Morally?’ Practical Ethics, 3rd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. (Chapter 10)
Vallentyne, Peter, ed. 1991. Contractarianism and rational choice: essays on David
Gauthier’s Morals by agreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Only chapter
14 online]
Kant and the Universality of Reason
Davis, Nancy (Ann). 1993. “Contemporary deontology.” IN A Companion to Ethics, edited by
Peter Singer. Oxford: Blackwell.
Herman, Barbara. 1981. “On the Value of Acting from the Motive of Duty,” The Philosophical Review 90 (3), pp. 359-382.
Herman, Barbara. 1993. The Practice of Moral Judgment. Harvard University Press. (esp.
Chapters 1, 4, 5) [Only chapter 4 online. Chapter 1 = Herman 1981]
Hill, Thomas E. 1989. “Kant’s Theory of Practical Reason.” Monist 72 (3): 363-383.
Schneewind, J. B. 1992. “Autonomy, obligation, and virtue: An overview of Kant’s moral
philosophy.” IN The Cambridge Companion to Kant, edited by Paul Guyer. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Utilitarianism
Goodin, Robert E. 1993. “Utility and the good” IN A Companion to Ethics, edited by Peter
Singer. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hare, R. M. 1982. “Ethical theory and utilitarianism.” IN Utilitarianism and Beyond, edited by
Amartya Sen and Bernard Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pettit, Philip. 1993. “Consequentialism” IN A Companion to Ethics, edited by Peter Singer.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Smart, J. J. 1973. ‘An outline of a system of utilitarian ethics.’ IN Utilitarianism: For and
Against, edited by J.J. Smart and Bernard Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Williams, Bernard. 1973. “A critique of utilitarianism.” IN Utilitarianism: For and Against,
edited by J.J. Smart and Bernard Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Justice and Inequality
Barry, Brian. 1997. “Humanity and Justice in Global Perspective.” IN Contemporary Political
Philosophy: An Anthology, edited by Goodin and Pettit. Oxford: Blackwell. [whole ebook
available]
Daniels, Norman, ed. 1989. Reading Rawls: critical studies on Rawls’ A Theory of Justice.
Stanford: Stanford University Press. (esp. essays by Nagel, Dworkin, Lyons and Scanlon.)
[Only article by Nagel online.]
Kukathas, Chandran and Philip Pettit. 1990. Rawls: A Theory of Justice and its Critics.
Cambridge: Polity Press. (esp. chapters 2, 3 & 4) [Only chapter 4 online.]
Miller, David. 2005. “Against Global Egalitarianism.” Journal of Ethics 9: 55-79
Pogge, Thomas, ed. 2001. Global Justice. Oxford: Blackwell. (esp. essays by Beitz, Pogge,
Hinsch, Caney, Gosepath, O’Neill and Zaneti) [Only article by Pogge online.]
Pogge, Thomas. 2002. World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and
Singer, Peter. 1972. ”Famine, Affluence and Morality.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1 (3): 229-
43.
Justice, Immigration and Refugees
Cole, Phillip and Doris Schroeder, 2004. “Justice beyond Borders.” Res Publica 10: 107- 113.
Dummett, Michael. 2001. On Immigration and Refugees. Routledge.
Dummett, Michael. 2004. “Immigration.” Res Publica 10: 115-122.
Gibney, Matthew. 2004. Ethics and Politics of Asylum: liberal democracy and the response to refugees. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maley W. et al. 2002. Refugees and the Myth of the Borderless World. Australian National
University.
Manne, Robert. 2004. “Sending them Home, Refugees and the New Politics of Indifference.”
Quarterly Essay (13), pp.1-95.
Taylor, Charles. 1999. “Democratic Exclusion (and Its Remedies?)” IN Citizenship, Diversity
and Pluralism, edited by Alan C. Cairns et al. McGill Queen’s University Press.
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