Monday Feb. 26

Required

1. Schafer-Landau, R. (2012). The Kantian perspective: Fairness and justice. In R. Shafer-Landau, The Fundamentals of ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This chapter from a textbook introduces Kant’s ethics. Please read pp. 154-160 for Feb. 26 (stop at “Morality & Rationality”).

• You can access this reading through the UBC Library Online Course Reserves page for this course (requires CWL).

2. There are two options for reading excerpts from Kant’s own text called Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (pick one). I will be referring to the first one in class, using page numbers from that.

• Bennett, J. (2017). Translation of Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals from the Early Modern Texts website. You can download this text here (PDF): Bennett, Kant’s Groundwork (excerpts) (PDF)
  • In this text, Jonathan Bennett has taken an English translation of Kant’s text and updated some of the language to make it clearer to readers in the 21st century, changing some of the complicated words and sentence structures, and deleting small passages that, as he puts it, seem to “present more difficulty than [they are] worth.” He has also added a few explanatory notes here and there. Overall I think this may be an easier text to read than the version below.
  • Please read pp. 1-5 (Chapter 1) for Feb. 26.

OR, you can read this English translation of Kant’s text (same material as above; different translation; the following is what was originally assigned for this course).

• Kant, I. (2015). The good will and the categorical imperative. In R. Shafer-Landau (Ed.), The ethical life: Fundamental readings in ethics and moral problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  Please read pp. 87-93 for Feb. 26.
  
  • You can access this reading through the UBC Library Online Course Reserves page for this course (requires CWL).

Optional:

• Here is a video from Crash Course on Kant’s ethics, from the Public Broadcasting Service in the U.S. (about 10 minutes).
• Here’s a less visually interesting video but still good in terms of content, from Philosophy Tube (about 8 minutes).

 

Wednesday Feb. 28

Required

1. Schafer-Landau, R. (2012). The Kantian perspective: Fairness and justice. In R. Shafer-Landau, The Fundamentals of ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Please read pp. 160-167 for Feb. 28.

• You can access this reading through the UBC Library Online Course Reserves page for this course (requires CWL).

2. As above, there are two options for reading excerpts from Kant’s own work (pick one). I will be referring to the first one in class.

• Bennett, J. (2017). Translation of Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals from the Early Modern Texts website.
  • You can download this text here (PDF): Bennett, Kant’s Groundwork (excerpts) (PDF)
  • Please read pp. 5-10 (chapter 2) for Feb. 28.

OR, you can read this version of Kant’s work (same material, different translation):

• Kant, I. (2015). The good will and the categorical imperative. In R. Shafer-Landau (Ed.), The ethical life: Fundamental readings in ethics and moral problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  Please read pp. 93-98 for Feb. 28.
  
  • You can access this reading through the UBC Library Online Course Reserves page for this course (requires CWL).

Discussion meetings Feb. 28 or March 2

There will be student-led discussions in small groups in discussion meetings this week.

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Monday March 5

Required

O’Neill, O. (1993). “Kantian approaches to some famine problems.” In T. Regan (Ed.), Matters of life and death: New introductory essays in moral philosophy (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

• For Wed. Feb. 28 read only pp. 258 to top of p. 263.
• You can access this reading through the UBC Library Online Course Reserves for this course (requires CWL login)

Optional

• This section of the Stanford Encyclopedia on Kant’s moral philosophy, on the second form of the categorical imperative, gives a good overview of the form of the C.I. sometimes called the form of humanity.

Wednesday, March 7

Required

O’Neill, “Kantian Approaches to Some Famine Problems”: same file as above, on the UBC Library Online Course Reserves for this course (requires CWL login)

• For Monday, March 5, read pp. 263 (starting with “Justice to the Vulnerable” to end of reading, p. 269.

Discussion meetings March 7 or 9

There will be student-led discussions in small groups in discussion meetings this week.