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Philosophy 316K Science and Philosophy: Moral Psychology MWF 1:00-2:00 GAR 3.116 Philosophy 316K Science and Philosophy: Moral Psychology MWF 1:00-2:00 GAR 3.116 “In present-day philosophy an explanation is required how an unjust man is a bad man, or an unjust action a bad one; to give such an explanation belongs to ethics; but it cannot even be begun until we are equipped with a sound philosophy of psychology.” G. E. M. Anscombe “Scientists and humanists should consider together the possibility that the time has come for ethics to be removed temporarily from the hands of the philosophers and biologicized." E. O. Wilson “I do not believe that a moral philosophy can ever be founded on a scientific basis. The valuation of life and all its nobler expressions can only come out of the soul’s yearning toward its own destiny. Every attempt to reduce ethics to scientific formulas must fail. Of that I am perfectly convinced.” Albert Einstein Instructor: Michael Dale Email: [email protected] Office: WAG 421 Office Hours: XXXXXXXX & by appointment 1 Course Description: This particular version of Science and Philosophy will focus on the burgeoning field of moral psychology. The last few decades have seen unprecedented advances in the empirical sciences, particularly neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology. What happens when these empirical findings—many of which undermine or at least come into conflict with our ordinary intuitions about ourselves and the world—run up against the traditionally theoretical discipline of ethics? Can they weigh in on such debates or should they be understood as mere descriptions of the world? For example, can the empirical finding that peoples’ behavior is not so much predicted by their character traits but instead by the situations that they find themselves in undermine virtue ethics, which presupposes the existence of character traits? Or what about morality itself? Can the idea that natural selection shaped our moral beliefs call the objectivity of morality into question? In this class, we attempt to answer these questions. Modern moral psychology is one of the most exciting and controversial fields in philosophy today, one in which the research is progressing in a way that is having real impacts on how we think about morality. This semester we will be on the cutting edge of such research, and hopefully you can judge for yourself how much the empirical findings of science can weigh in on ethical matters. Learning Goals: The course has three general learning goals. The first is to introduce students to the field of moral psychology as understood above. The second is to enable students to develop those skills associated with the discipline of philosophy in general – including the ability to uncover those assumptions on which particular arguments are based and to assess the arguments themselves in a rigorous fashion. Finally, students will improve their written and communications skills through generating both thoughtful class comments and philosophically sharp prose about challenging material. Evaluation: The grade of the course will be based on the following criteria: 30%: Midterm Paper 10%: Final Paper Presentation 30%: Final Paper 30%: Class participation (including online discussion & reading quizzes—if there are any) Reading Quizzes: I don’t like giving quizzes or exams because philosophy is not about memorization. However, I do want to make sure that you are doing the readings, so there will be reading quizzes given out randomly during the semester (and you will not know when I will give them, so yes, they are effectively “pop-quizzes”). They will test your knowledge of the reading assigned for that day. Now, if it ends up that we get through a few weeks, and it seems like people are (critically) reading the materials and coming to class prepared, then I am open to dropping the requirement altogether. In an ideal world, there would be no knowledge based assessments in philosophy. It is up to you whether we will live in that ideal world this semester. Midterm Paper: Students will write one midterm paper, 5-6 pages in length. You are welcome to write about whatever topic you wish, but I will provide the class with some possible prompts a few weeks before the paper is due. You are welcome to take one of your responses in the Canvas discussion and use that as a springboard for a paper. Final Paper: Students will write one final paper, 5-6 pages in length. You are welcome to write about whatever topic you wish. However, throughout the semester, I will continuously discuss 2 potential paper topics. If you are having trouble finding a topic, feel free to come talk to me or send me an email. You can write on a topic during the first half of the class, as long as it isn’t the same topic of your midterm paper. During the last two weeks of classes, students will do a brief (3-5 minute) presentation on their final papers, in which they describe their final paper (e.g. describe their thesis, a potential objection to their thesis, and how they respond to that objection). There will then be a brief (3-5 minute) question and answer period in which other students in the class can raise objections or give comments. Try not to stress out about this presentation. It is here only to help you develop your ideas and get feedback in a low pressure, friendly environment. If you are especially worried about it, come talk to me. Please see the following guide (by professor James Pryor) to writing a philosophical essay: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html https://philosophy.dept.shef.ac.uk/papers/PryorWRITE.pdf It’s worth reading right away, even before you think about writing essays, as it can help you to figure out how to engage with the texts we’ll be reading. Class participation: As you can see, class participation is very important. Here is what that consists of: • Regular and faithful attendance. I take this very seriously. Attendance will be taken, and unexcused absences will lower your participation grade. Habitual lateness will also lower your participation grade. • Participation in class discussions, both verbally and on-line. Philosophy can’t be learned passively, by reading or listening to lectures. You learn philosophy by articulating views, probing those views, raising objections to them, refining them in the light of those objections, etc. Talking about philosophy with others is one of the only ways to do this. Writing is the other. Participation in class discussions is therefore required, and very important to your final grade. I recognize, however, that students sometimes find it very difficult to speak in the classroom. If you think this is you, please come talk to me about it outside of class. Class participation plus online discussion will, considered together, contribute 30% to your final grade. • Online discussions. These can be found in the “discussions” section on Canvas. I will create a discussion thread for every week (1 per week), usually posing one or more questions on the reading. Before the first class of the week, go to the relevant discussion thread and write (roughly) 250 – 500 words in answer to the question or questions posed. You will all be able to view one another’s posts, and are encouraged to respond to one another, in addition to answering the questions yourself. Contributions must be posted by 7:00 AM on the day of the class to which they are relevant (usually Monday), so that I will have time to read them before class. (You are, of course, welcome to add more to a thread later on, to continue a previous discussion.) At the end of the semester, I will look over all of your discussion-thread answers, and give you a grade based upon them considered together with your class participation. Students may skip contributing to the 3 discussion thread on up to two occasions over the course of the semester without penalty to their grade. • The purpose of this requirement is three-fold:i) It is intended to help you to think about the assignment before class, so that it will be easier for you to ask questions and contribute to discussions in class.ii) It is intended to help me to see, before class, what questions a reading has raised for you, how you’re interpreting it, what difficulties you’re having with it, etc.iii) Most importantly, it is intended to help foster discussions among you, which you can continue off-line, out of class. Electronic Devices: In general, I’m not a big fan of electronic devices, and I don’t like having them in class, as they are usually a distraction to both you and the people around you. However, if using a computer or another electronic device is genuinely helpful to you, come talk to me, and we can probably work something out. Deadlines: I take essay deadlines very seriously. I am happy to grant reasonable requests for extensions, when asked well in advance of an essay due-date. However, unless you have specific permission from me, in advance, to hand in an essay late, late essays will be subject to a penalty of one grade increment per day late. I.e., one day late takes you from an A to an A-, two days to a B+, three days to a B, four days to a B-.... On the other hand, if asked sufficiently in advance, I will grant reasonable requests for extensions. Required Texts: There is one required text for this course: Introduction to Evolutionary Ethics by Scott M. James All other texts can be found on Canvas.
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