Meta-ethics

Lectures: 2 session / week, 1.5 hours / session

MIT students were required to have taken one philosophy subject or to obtain permission of instructor.

"Killing is wrong!" "You ought not lie." "It's better not to make a promise than to make one and break it."

These are all examples of moral statements. They are the kinds of claims you try to sort out in an ethics class. In this class, we will be asking questions about the nature of morality and ethical inquiry. For instance, are any moral statements objectively true? How is moral inquiry similar to and different from scientific inquiry? Are moral facts and properties on a par with non-moral (natural) facts and properties (like being negatively charged, having brown hair, etc.)? What does it mean to say "Killing is wrong"? Is it similar to saying "The act of killing has the property of wrongness"? Is it similar to saying "Don't kill"? Why should we be moral at all? Is it always the case that it would be better to be morally better?

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