Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of morality, theories of right and wrong, and moral questions in the fields of politics, medicine, religion, education, and law. This course starts with practical issues, specifically arguments about raising and killing animals for food. This leads to examination of three sources of pessimism about ethics - psychological egoism, ethical egoism, and moral relativism. Students are introduced to the major traditions in normative ethical theory - consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. We discuss Mill, Kant, and Aristotle.
