Philos 4: Introduction to Ethics
Fall Quarter 2025
Course Description
What kinds of actions are right and wrong? What makes an action right or wrong? How ought we to live? What is a good life anyway? In this class we will tackle these questions primarily by engaging with the most prominent and influential ethical theories. First we will look at Utilitarian ethics-including the recently influential 'Effective Altruist' movementand its critics before considering two competing alternative approaches to ethics in Kant and Aristotle. Along the way, we will learn what it is to pose philosophical questions and answer them through reasoned argument.
Course objectives and learning outcomes
After successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
Understand the shape and content of three highly influential approaches to ethics.
Recognize what is distinctive to philosophical approaches to questions of right and wrong and how to live well.
Grapple with important texts in the history of ethics.
Grapple with important contemporary movements inspired by philosophical ethics.
Recognize the different kinds of principles that have been appealed to in determining how one ought to act.
General Education requirement
The general education requirements are intended to help undergraduates place the specialized study undertaken in the major within a broader context. Philos 4 satisfies the General Education Category IV (Arts and Humanities).