Morality and Objectivity
Instructor:         Chris Furlong
                        Emerson 306   
                        Office hours: TBA
                        furlong@fas.harvard.edu
 
Course Description:   In this tutorial, we will be primarily concerned with the question: in what sense, and to what extent is morality objective?  We will focus our discussion around Michael Smith’s book The Moral Problem.  Smith holds that the widespread philosophical doubt and suspicion about the objectivity of morality is due to what he calls its “practicality.”  Morality, he claims, is intimately tied to action and therefore to desires, and philosophers have had a hard time explaining how an enterprise so closely tied to our desires could at the same time be objective, i.e. independent of our judgments, preferences and inclinations.  Traditionally, moral philosophers have fallen into one of two camps: either they have denied the practicality of morality (e.g. Brink, Mill, Railton, etc.) or they have denied its objectivity (e.g. Hume, Williams, Blackburn).  Smith proposes to develop a theory of moral judgment that will preserve both of these presumptive features.  In addition to reading (almost) the entire book, we will look at some background readings to set the stage, as well as some articles representing alternative ways of grappling with the problems Smith identifies.   
                     
Grading:      4 short, expository essays                                 35% combined
                                    1st essay, (300wds)                             4%
                                                2nd essay, (450wds)                           6%
                                                3rd essay, (600wds)                            10%
                                                4th essay, (800wds)                            15%
Term paper (2300-2500wds)                           40%
Attendance & Participation                               20%
As part of your class participation, you will be asked to provide written comments on your classmates’ short papers.  You will not be graded on the quality of your comments, but you must take the exercise seriously in order to receive full credit.
 
*Extension policy:  Since your classmates will be reading and responding to your short expository papers, no extensions can be granted on those.  If you cannot turn in your paper due to illness or some other emergency, you must provide written documentation.  Extensions on the final term paper must be requested directly from the Head Tutor.  All late papers will be assessed a penalty of 1/3 of a letter grade per day, including weekends. (i.e. from an A- to a B+; from a B to a B-, etc.)       
 
Tentative Syllabus:
Week 1:     Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, chapter 1.
Week 2:     Harman, The Nature of Morality, chapters 1-2.
      Smith, The Moral Problem, chapter 1.
        Essay Topic (300wds): What is the Moral Problem?
Week 3:     Smith, The Moral Problem, §§2.1-2.9, 2.13-2.14.
                  Recommended:  The Moral Problem, §§2.10-2.12; Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, chapter 6.
      Essay Topic (450wds): What does Smith think is really wrong with the various forms of Descriptivism Ayer considers?
Week 4:     Brink, Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics, chapter 3.
                  Smith, The Moral Problem, §§3.1-3.5.
                  Essay Topic (600wds): Explain Smith’s argument for the practicality requirement. 
Week 5:     Foot, “Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives.”
                  Smith, The Moral Problem, §§3.6-3.10.
        Recommended: McDowell, “Are Moral Requirements Hypothetical Imperatives?”       
      Essay Topic (800wds): Explain Smith’s argument for the rationalist’s conceptual claim.
Week 6:     Davidson, “Actions, Reasons, Causes.”
                  Williams, “Internal and External Reasons.”
                  Recommended: McDowell, “Might There be External Reasons?”
Week 7:     Smith, The Moral Problem, chapter 4. 
Week 8:     Korsgaard, “Skepticism about Practical Reason.”
Week 9:     Smith, The Moral Problem, chapter 5.
Week 10:   Smith, The Moral Problem, chapter 6.
Week 11:   McDowell, “Are Moral Requirements Hypothetical Imperatives?”
                  _____, “Might There be External Reasons?”