LFU:online

Familiarity with contemporary scientific accounts of our moral sensibilities, and an understanding of debunking arguments based on these accounts.

Most humans at most times have believed in moral standards such as right and wrong, good and bad, etc. But why?  Recently, researchers working in the cognitive psychology, evolutionary biology, and cultural anthropology have begun to offer powerful explanations for our moral sensibilities. Do such explanations “explain away” ethics by debunking our moral beliefs or providing reasons to be skeptical of our moral standards? Or might such explanations provide additional evidence for or against certain ethical claims? This course will present empirical explanations for our moral sensibilities and consider whether such explanations have philosophical implications.

Lectures on the core material, incorporating student questions and discussions based on the associated readings when appropriate.

A final examination.

Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved, DeWaal, Princeton University Press 2009.
The Evolution of Morality, Joyce, Bradford Book/MIT Press 2007.
Various papers to be made available electronically.

None.