Ethics and Action
TRS 737A
(Moral Theology/Ethics Core Course #1)
Spring 2009
Mondays 3:10-5:40
154 Caldwell Hall
Instructor:William BarbieriOffice Hours: Wednesday 1-4
106 Caldwell Hallor by appointment
202-319-6886
Description: Ethics is concerned, fundamentally, with the evaluation of action, and therefore depends upon an understanding of human agency. This course is an investigation of the character of agency and the nexus of related concepts: human nature, freedom, autonomy, intention, will, practical reason, responsibility, etc. In it we will consider a range of influential perspectives on action and its moral dimensions. The course, as a core course in “Moral Theology/Ethics,” is interdisciplinary; we will draw freely on theological, philosophical, and other sources, pairing “classics” on the topic with more recent expositors. Among the questions we will put to our sources: What does it mean to act? To what extent are humans “free” in their actions? What is the structure of a moral act? What is the “will”? Can people act collectively? What does it mean to speak of “intrinsically evil acts”?
Objectives: This course aims (1) to acquaint students with the central topics and issues involved in the analysis and evaluation of human action, and (2) to familiarize students with a range of theories concerning the nature of moral acts and actors. In the process, there will be an effort (3) to introduce students to the historical development of understandings of agency. An additional concern will be (4) to investigate the interrelationship of theological and other approaches to the study of morality.
Format: The class will be conducted in a seminar format combining presentations with discussions and close readings of texts.
Texts: The following books have been ordered through Newman Bookstore:
Elizabeth Anscombe, Intention
Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good
Charles Pinches, Theology and Action
Michael Polanyi, The Study of Man
Jean Porter, Moral Action and Christian Ethics
Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another
Aaron Stalnaker, Overcoming Our Evil
Additional texts will be made available electronically.
Requirements:
Participation (20%). Students are expected to prepare the texts for each class and to bring a detailed, typed question relating the readings to the themes of the course.
Referat (40%). Each student will be responsible for giving a 20-minute presentation on one of the class days presenting the major themes of the reading and raising critical questions about them. The assignment entails preparing a one-page handout for the class and submitting a paper of 8-10 pages based on the presentation.
Paper (40%). Students must submit a 15-page paper on a topic related to class themes, to be determined in consultation with the instructor. The paper is due on the last day of class.
Schedule:
1/12 INTRODUCTION
William Barbieri, “Ethics and the Narrated Life”
Alphonso Lingis, “The Immoralist”
1/26 TALMUDIC RESPONSIBILITY
Selections from the Hebrew Scriptures
Emmanuel Levinas, “Ethics as First Philosophy”
Robert Gibbs, from Why Ethics?
2/2VISION AND LUCK
Plato, Protagoras
Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good
Martha Nussbaum, from The Fragility of Goodness
2/9VIRTUE AND THE GOOD LIFE
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Alasdair MacIntyre, “Social Stuctures and Their Threats to Moral Agency”
Stanley Hauerwas, “Toward an Ethics of Character”
2/16EVIL AND THE WILL
Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will
Servais Pinckaers, from The Sources of Christian Ethics
Aaron Stalnaker, Overcoming Our Evil: Human Nature and Spiritual Exercises in Xunzi and Augustine
2/23EXCEPTIONLESS NORMS AND MISTAKEN CONSCIENCE
Aquinas, ST Ia-IIae, qq. 18-20
Veritatis Splendor
Jean Porter, Moral Action and Christian Ethics
2/25RATIONALITY AND AGENCY
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
Alan Gewirth, “The Basis and Content of Human Rights”
Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another
3/9EXISTENTIALISM AND PHENOMENOLOGY
Soren Kierkegaard, from Either/Or II
Jean-Paul Sartre, from Being and Nothingness
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, from Phenomenology of Perception
3/16STRUCTURE AND AGENCY
Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” and “Theses on Feuerbach”
Anthony Giddens, from The Constitution of Society
Juergen Habermas, from The Theory of Communicative Action
3/23THE LINGUSTIC TURN
Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Lecture on Ethics” and selections from Philosophical Investigations
Elizabeth Anscombe, Intention
Sabina Lovibond, from Realism and Imagination in Ethics
3/30POST-CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Michael Polanyi, The Study of Man
William Poteat, “Myths, Stories, History, Eschatology and Action” and “Notes Toward the Definition of Freedom”
4/6SOCIAL AGENCY
Alfred Schutz and Thomas Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World
Peter French, ed., Shared Intentions and Collective Responsibility, selections
Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self, part I
4/20FEMINIST CRITIQUES
Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice
Diana Tietjens Meyers, “Agency,” in A Companion to Feminist Philosophy, 372-82
4/27CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Charles Pinches, Theology and Action: After Theory in Christian Ethics
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