This course hopes to introduce us to the study of morality and moral practice by first asking whether we ought to behave morally and, if so, what, exactly, it might mean to think and act in a moral way. The course will explore several challenges to morality--such as relativism, evolution, and the possibility that God does not exist. We will also examine the moral implications of birth, death, and pleasure, as well as how freedom, equality, and loyalty enter into our moral lives. We will conclude by considering a host of ways in which moral values are or ought (not) to be for sale.
Fall and Spring.