YFIS511 Ethics and Sentiments, 5 op [kotisivu]

The goal of this seminar is to familiarize students with some important historical and contemporary variants sentimentalism and influential arguments for and against them.

Participants are expected to read at least all starred readings in advance and come to class prepared to respond to all the questions provided with the texts. All listed texts will be made available online and will be discussed in class.

Ethics and Sentiments, 5 op, Antti Kauppinen

Mon 8.9.  klo 12.15 - 13.45, 14.00 - 15.45
Tue  9.9.  klo 11.15 - 12.45, 14.00 - 15.45
Wed 10.9. klo 11.15 - 12.45, 16.00 - 17.45
Thu 11.9. klo 10.15 - 11.45, 14.00 - 15.45

General background reading:
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Moral Sentimentalism (Kauppinen)

Monday, September 8: Moral Sense Theories

*Frances Hutcheson, Illustrations on the Moral Sense, excerpt
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, excerpt 1
Shaftesbury, An Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Merit, excerpt
Frances Hutcheson, An Inquiry Into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, excerpt
*Jonathan Haidt, ’The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail’
Shaun Nichols, ‘Innateness and Moral Psychology’.

Tuesday, September 9: Empathy, Sympathy, and Morality

*David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, excerpt 2
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, excerpt
Adam Smith, A Theory of Moral Sentiments, excerpts 1 and 2
*Adam Smith, A Theory of Moral Sentiments, excerpt 3
Michael Slote, Moral Sentimentalism, excerpt
*Jesse Prinz, ’Against Empathy’

Wednesday, September 10: Dispositional Theories of Value and Neo-Sentimentalism

*Jesse Prinz, The Emotional Construction of Morals, ch. 3, ’Sensibility Saved’
Andy Egan, ’Relativist Dispositional Theories of Value’
David Wiggins, ’A Sensible Subjectivism?’
*Justin D’Arms and Daniel Jacobson, ’Sensibility Theory and Projection’
Simon Blackburn, ‘Circles, Finks, Smells, and Biconditionals’

Thursday, September 11: Epistemic Sentimentalism

*Joshua Greene, ’The Secret Joke of Kant’s Soul’.
Selim Berker, ‘The Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience’.
Joshua Greene, ’Notes on Berker’.
Sabine Döring, ’Seeing What to Do: Affective Perception and Rational Motivation’.
*Peter Railton, ’The Affective Dog and Its Rational Tale’.
*Justin D’Arms and Daniel Jacobson, ’Sentimentalism and Scientism’.