Read pages 223-261 in the Ethical Toolbox. Pay particular attention to pages 245-261, on judging like cases alike.
In Blink, read "Seven Seconds in the Bronx," 189-245.
We will discuss the writing assignment a bit on Tuesday. We may need to push the deadline back a bit on this one, to give time for adequate preparation.
Be ready for a quiz on the readings, as usual.
In the early chapters of Weston, he discusses various stances that are opposed to ethical thinking -- either attitudes that dismiss it or arguments that seek to show that ethical thinking unnecessary. One of the most basic questions about such stances is the matter of the ethics of belief -- what are the requirements for morally justified belief? The following article addresses this question: Download file
Please read through page 54 in the Ethical Toolbox and be able to summarize the main points and arguments. Pay particular attention to the material in the shaded boxes.
Weston gives in these pages a clear sense of what he finds valuable about moral thinking, and about thinking generally, by contrasting such thinking with dismissals of various kinds and with unreflective living. Try to understand his reasons for rejecting "doing what comes naturally" and also various intellectual moves -- like relativism and appeal to religious certainty -- that attempt to forestall or foreclose ethical thinking.
Welcome to the course. Here is the syllabus: Download file