Feb. 26-Mar. 9 (Kant & O’Neill)

Monday Feb. 26

Required

Painting of head and top torso of Immanuel Kant, holding a book
Painting of Kant, public domain on Wikimedia Commons.

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”).

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.

Optional:

 

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.

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.

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.

Discussion meetings Feb. 28 or March 2

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


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.

Optional

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.

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