Monday 10/7
Utilitarianism I
Examination II
Given the amount of material covered on Exam II (see below), I'm not going to assign any additional readings for today. I'll do my best to squeeze our discussion of utilitarianism into the next two days. This entire class period, in other words, will be given over to the exam.
As per the syllabus, please note that this exam is worth twice the first exam (100 vs 50 points). So it is important that you carefully review all of the notes, handouts, texts, and, crucially, the synopses for each of the lecture days. Make sure you understand all of the arguments--the arguments for each theory, and the arguments against. Be sure you understand our responses to the arguments for the theories, and be especially sure you understand how each of the arguments against a theory is an application of the Standard of Clarity, the Standard of Coherence, or the Standard of Reflective Equilibrium, as the case may be. Indeed, given the number of arguments we've taken up, it would be a great idea to use flash cards to help memorize them.
Exam II is organized as follows:
- Truth Conditions and Objective Truth
- Emotivism
- Cultural Ethical Relativism
- Simple Ethical Subjectivism
- Divine Command Theory
- Natural Law Theory