Overview
Required text Ethics: The Essential Writings, ed. Gordon Marino (New York: Modern Library, 2010). ISBN: 9780812977783.
1. Explain some of the ways in which Martin Luther King’s views in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” reflect Thomas Aquinas’ natural law theory. How would you apply this view to cases of homophobia and transphobia today?
2. Given what we’ve read in this class so far, would you say that David Hume’s “moral sentimentalism” is opposed to Aristotle’s virtue ethics, or just a modification of Aristotle’s view? Explain your answer.
3. What is the first version of Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative (that is, the principle of universalizability)? Explain what it means, and then apply it to an issue of contemporary moral concern.
4. Immanuel Kant thought of his philosophy as a direct response to and rebuttal of David Hume’s. Explain how one could see Kant’s moral philosophy as a critical response to Hume’s.
5. What is the second version of Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative (that is, the humanitarian principle)? Explain what it means, and then apply it to an issue of contemporary moral concern.