Thick Ethical Concepts 3800-TEC24-S
In his seminal 1981 book After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntyre lamented the progressive impoverishment of our moral language. He was not alone in noticing it – philosophers as different as GEM Anscombe, Bernard Williams and Charles Taylor, and many others, have since the middle of the 20th century been pointing out that modern life in liberal societies, and the tradition of doing moral philosophy to which liberalism is committed, favour the use of “thin”, purely evaluative ethical concepts, like “good” and “bad”, “right” and “wrong”, at the expense of “thick”, descriptive-evaluative concepts like “generous”, “cowardly”, or “kind”. This is, they have argued, a cause for concern. “Thin” concepts are more less dependent on particular culture, and therefore more suitable for universalistic moral discourse. However, “thick” concepts seem to have an important advantage over “thin” ones in that they straddle the fact / value divide, allowing those competent in their use to draw normative conclusions from observable facts and arguably making them capable of genuine moral knowledge.
The aim of this seminar will be to examine the idea of “thick” ethical concepts, in order to try to establish if their gradual loss is indeed inevitable, or whether there could be ways to keep this kind of concepts alive.
Rodzaj przedmiotu
Założenia (opisowo)
Koordynatorzy przedmiotu
Efekty kształcenia
The student knows and understands
- the main directions and some of the most important new achievements in the field of ethics, (K_W05)
- selected tendencies and positions in the contemporary moral philosophy. (K_W06)
The student is able to
- analyze philosophical arguments, identify their premises and their theses, as well as establish the logical relations between them. (K_U03)
- identify advanced argumentative strategies in written texts. (K_U04)
- choose argumentative strategies, construct advanced critical arguments, respond to criticism in an innovative way. (K_U08)
The student is ready to
- identify the gaps in his or her knowledge and skills and look for remedies. (K_K02)
- participate actively in the social and cultural life of his or her community; he or she is interested in the new philosophical ideas in their connection to other aspects of the social life and encourages others to implement them. (K_K05)
Kryteria oceniania
Active participation in the discussion.
Preparing and giving one classroom presentation
Number of absences: 2
Literatura
1. Anscombe, GEM (1958), “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy, vol. 33, no. 124
2. Blackburn, S. (2010). “Through Thick and Thin”. In S. Blackburn, Practical Tortoise Raising and Other Philosophical Essays (pp. 129-146). New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
3. Dancy, J. (2021). “In defence of thick concepts”. In J. Dancy, Practical Thought: Essays on Reason, Intuition, and Action (pp. 160-177). New York: Oxford University Press.
4. Eklund, M. (2011). “What are thick terms?” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 25-49.
5. Foot, P. (1958). “Moral Arguments”. Mind, 502-513.
6. Gibbard, A. (2003). “Reasons Thin and Thick”. Journal of Philosophy, Inc., 288-304.
7. Heuer, U. (2012). “Thick Concepts and Internal reasons”. In U. Heuer, & G. Lang, Luck, Value, and Commitment: Themes from the Ethics of Bernard Williams (pp. 219-244). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
8. Kirchin, S. (2013). “Thick Concepts and Thick Descriptions”. In S. Kirchin, Thick Concepts (pp. 58- 77). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. MacIntyre, A. (1981), After Virtue, University of Notre Dame Press (fragments).
10. Smith, M. (2013). “On the Nature and Significance of the Distinction between Thick and Thin Ethical Concepts”. In S. Kirchin, Thick Concepts (pp. 97-120). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
11. Väyrynen, P. (2013). The Lewd, the Rude and the Nasty. New York: Oxford University Press (fragments).
12. Williams, B. (1985), Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, Routledge (fragments).
13. Williams, B. (1995). “Truth in Ethics”. Ratio, 227-242.
The list of readings may be expanded.
Więcej informacji
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