Philosophy 2

This course is an introduction to moral and political philosophy. Rather than treating these as largely distinct areas of inquiry that answer fundamentally different questions, we will approach questions in this course in part by considering how our answers to some questions might impact our answers to others. After beginning by looking at several views about the nature of morality, we will examine various positions on the extent to which morality can make demands on individuals, including thinking about how morality?s demands might be limited by considerations of fairness, integrity, and the importance of personal projects. We will then consider two prominent views of justice, defended by Rawls and Nozick respectively, and look at how each argues against the view of justice defended by the other. We will conclude by examining the ways in which principles of justice and the demands of morality on individuals might intersect, and the ways in which our intuitions about different questions might lead us to hold views that are incompatible. Attempting to resolve this conflict and other similar conflicts will be a major theme of the course.