Robert Cavalier
Philosophy Department
Carnegie Mellon
Part I History of Ethics
Preface: The
Life of Socrates
Section 1:
Greek Moral Philosophy
Section 2:
Hellenistic and Roman Ethics
Section 3:
Early Christian Ethics
Section 4: Modern
Moral Philosophy
Section 5: 20th
Century Analytic Moral Philosophy
Part II Concepts and Problems
Preface: Meta-ethics,
Normative Ethics and Applied Ethics
Section 1:
Ethical Relativism
Section 2:
Ethical Egoism
Section 3:
Utilitarian Theories
Section 4: Deontological
Theories
Section 5: Virtue
Ethics
Section 6: Liberal
Rights and Communitarian Theories
Section 7: Ethics
of Care
Section 8: Case-based
Moral Reasoning
Section 9: Moral
Pluralism
Part III Applied Ethics
Preface: The
Field of Applied Ethics
Section 1:
The Topic of Euthanasia
Multimedia
Module: A Right to Die? The Dax
Cowart Case
Section 2:
The Topic of Abortion
Multimedia
Module: The Issue of Abortion in
America
Postscript:
Conflict Resolution
The Discernment of Perception
Martha Nussbaum's book, Love's Knowledge (Oxford Univ. Press, 1990), contains an essay on Aristotle that highlights his relevance to contemporary works of moral philosophy.
For Aristotle as well as for Nussbaum, virtues and values are plural and there is no Platonic hierarchy to determine which virtue or value may trump the other in situations that involve complicated choices. For example, there is no algorithm to determine what one ought to do when needing to resolve a conflict between a friend's needs and going to class. (Here the values of education and friendship might clash.) For Nussbaum, the incommensurability of values leads of necessity to a qualitative measurement of 'right actions' in concrete situations. This ability to 'attune oneself' to complex situations (being "finely aware and richly responsible") is the mark of a man of practical wisdom.Such wisdom is attained through the thoughtful cultivation of human "excellences" in the context of rich experience. It is like becoming a 'moral musician' -- aware of general rules but adept at 'improvising' as the situation may require. And what makes one 'good' at this is experience informed by the imaginative grasp of what is appropriate at this time and place, in these circumstances, with these trade-offs and -- possibly -- losses. One becomes adept at using the Lesbian Ruler -- deliberating with a flexibility that the situation demands. (This Ruler, developed on the Island of Lesbos, was designed to measure curved and irregular objects as well as straigt objects. It was flexible and could adjust its measurement to the surface at hand.)
And how does one become a good 'moral architect'? Among other things, by cultivating our perceptions to include imagination and emotional response as well as intellectual rigor. Taken together, perception becomes "a loving conversation between rules and concrete responses, general conceptions and unique cases, in which the general articulates the particular and is in turn further articulated by it". Real insight and understanding of a complex matter involves 'the whole soul.'
Now, certain forms of literature can show us the complexity of 'whole souls' struggling to confront complex situations. Reading such stories can give us indirect experiences and help us become 'wiser' in the process. Stories well told can bring us into contact with more people and more situations...helping us in turn to become better 'perceivers' and, with good intent, wiser people in both our private and civic lives.
