Welcome back
We’ll check in first, and then we’ll talk about these two moral systems. There will be some homework for next time, but it is only a reflection task, not any reading.
Kant, Mill, a Villain, a Victim
You have (or most of you have) written short pieces about Kant and Mill encountering precisely the problem that Kant raises in his essay on the supposed right to lie. The value of this exercise is that it puts these two systems of philosophy into dialogue with each other.
Let’s watch this first: from the wonderful 8-Bit Philosophy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngp1Qd8D2PQ. It doesn’t go very deep, and the final question is not the end of the story (there are other ways of thinking about ethics, as we will see). But it is a fun and enjoyable summary of some of the arguments.
Now, in breakout groups, I want you to share your stories. Share your thoughts on these:
- How did you imagine the scene unfolding?
- What happened in the end?
- What were the arguments on both sides?
- How did you decide between them? What kind of reasons did you appeal to?
Discussion
We’ll feed back from the breakout groups. Here’s a question:
How do we decide between these two moral positions: utilitarianism and deontology? Do we appeal to one or the other of these theories? Or do we appeal to something else (our moral intuitions, for example, or a third theory, or religious understandings of ethics, or something else)?
Quiz
The final task in this segment is the quiz. I’ll open it up now. You have until the end of the day ICT, and you can do it in groups, even though you will be providing individual answers and you will be graded individually.
I recommend that you reopen Kant’s Groundwork and Mill’s essay on Utilitarianism, and that you work through the quiz questions together in your groups. When you have finished the quiz, you can leave the session.
Homework
Next time, we’re going to look at another way of approaching ethics: virtue ethics. In this approach to ethics, we turn our focus from ethical acts to ethical persons. We ask not “what makes this action good” but, “how do we understand what it means to be a good person?”
Answer these questions on the discusison board by the deadline.
- What virtues do you admire in others?
- What virtues do you have yourself?
- What do you think are the most important virtues?
- Are virtues timeless and contextless, or do they depend on circumstances?
There’s no reading until next week! When you’ve done this homework task, you can have a break.