Spring 2014 Ethics Course Study Questions

Return to Ethics

JAN 14

1st class

JAN 16

1. What were Ariely's findings on honesty?
2. What is the possible significance of his research for understanding the nature of ethics?

JAN 21

1. How do we use metaphors to think about the psyche, soul, and human identity?
2. What organic features of consciousness does Haidt think we need to consider when doing ethics? How might they be usefull?
3. What picture of the mind does Haidt leave us with?
4. What is the the significance of defining ethics in terms of settling value conflict?
5. What, if anything, does the Zimbardo Experiment tell us about the nature of ethics?

JAN 23

1. Describe Haidt's research on disgust. What is its possible significance for understanding the nature of ethics.
2. What is Haidt's criticism of developmental psychology's past approach to understanding the nature of ethics?
3. Why does Haidt think that Turiel's and Schweder's research represent an improvement over the nature/nuture debate?

JAN 28

1. Present and evaluate Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of development.
2. What is the problem of relativism (include forms of relativism and subjectivism) and what is Singer's argument against them?
3. What kinds of reason-giving "count" as ethical for Singer?

JAN 30

1. How does Aristotle frame (structure and establish conditions for arguments) the discussion of happiness and the good life?
2. How does Aristotle evaluate various candidate answers for the good life?
3. What is Aristotle's view of the nature of the soul and why is that important for understanding the good life?

FEB 4

1. How does Haidt criticize philosophers on the topic of the relationship between reason and emotion?
2. How do evolutionary psychologists help us see the elephant talking? (And what does that even mean?)
3. What is the social intuitionist model of moral judgement? (Start comparing to other theories, like virtue ethics.)

FEB 6

1. Do we have an inner lawyer?
2. Does it operate the way Haidt thinks?
3. How do you get the elephant to listen?

FEB 11

1. What is virtue, according to Aristotle?
2. How do we know when we are achieving it?
3. What is involved in deliberate choice for Aristotle?

FEB 13

1. What evidence does Haidt provide for the claim that we are constantly concerned with our status and that we tend to conserve our views even at the expense of good reasoning?
2. How does Haidt think this evidence ought to influence our view of politics?
3. Compare Haidt's view of social deliberation with Aristotle's view of deliberate choice.

FEB 18

1. What is Veneer Theory? Who believes it and why?
2. How does our "sociality" bear on the question of whether morality evolved from nature?
3. What evidence do Darwin, Smith, and Westermark cite for the naturalness of moral values?

FEB 20

1. What is empathy? What is sympathy?
2. Distinguish relatively simple forms of empathy from more complex ones using examples from de Waal.
3. What are some of the apparent prerequisites for cognitive empathy?

FEB 25

1. Present and assess the evidence on monkey fairness.
2. What is de Waal's meta-ethical theory? (49-58)

FEB 27

1. Why isn't Korsgaard impressed with Veneer Theory?
2. How does she argue against de Waal's gradualism (or continuity thesis)?
3. How might Haidt respond?