Farlie on Pride

Reading for Monday.

Philosophy Class as Conversation

If you join at eleven o’clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why – the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point.  --C. S. Lewis

I position this remark of Lewis' here to remind, or perhaps to tell, all of you that you need to be thinking of our class as an on-going conversation.  What I am saying on any day has a special point, one that you can only fully appreciate by having been attentive to and actively remembering what was said on earlier days.  I fear that many of you understand classes as a set of atoms, largely, maybe even wholly, self-contained.  You come, you hear, you (mostly) forget.  But then you end up like the person who enters the conversation at eleven o'clock when the conversation began at eight.  You miss the real bearing of what is being said.

Each day of class should seem to you like the resumption of a conversation, one whose breaking-off point you remember and whose earlier stages you can bring to bear on what is currently being said.

Pride

Why It Matters If You Are Moral? Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard was a philosopher who taught at Southern California.  He died recently.  Here is a nice paper of his that captures much of what we are doing this term in a brief form.

William James on Habit

Handout

          PHIL 1020 Introduction to Ethics

       Summer 2019 Barcelona

Kelly Dean Jolley

kellydeanjolley@gmail.com

I normally respond to email within 24 hours.  

Office Hours:  TBA.

Required Reading:  

CS Lewis, The Abolition of Man

Chaucer, Parson's Tale

Aristotle Handout

Aquinas Handout

Plutarch Handouts

Suggested Reading: 

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Aquinas, On the Virtues in General, The Cardinal Virtues

Dante, Purgatory

Spenser, The Faerie Queene

(other suggestions will be made during class)

                                                             

Assignments:  

Attendance: 25%
Short Papers:  25%@
Quizzes: 25%

Quizzes:  Usually, they will be given unannounced; and, usually, they will focus on the assigned reading for the day they are given, but on occasion, they will focus on past readings or class discussions.  

Requirements:  Students are required to do all reading by the date assigned, and to come to class ready to participate in class discussion.  Specific readings will be announced as the course progresses 

Cell phones must be turned OFF before class (not merely silenced or set to vibrate).  No cell phone should ever be visible during class.  Students may take notes on computers or iPads, etc., but if I see that notes are not being taken or that something other than note-taking is also happening, I will demand that the computer be shut down.  Lectures may not be recorded without my pre-approval.  

Students needing accommodations should arrange a meeting during the first week of classes, either during office hours or at an arranged time.  Please bring the Accommodations Memo and Instructor Verification.  We will discuss the necessary accommodations at the meeting.  If a student needs accommodations but does not have a Memo, he or she should make an appointment with The Program for Students with Disabilities, 1244 Haley Center, 844-2096.

Course Description and Objectives:  This course will introduce students to ethics via careful philosophical investigation of the virtues and the vices.  Central to the class are the classical conceptions of the seven deadly sins/vices (Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust) and the four cardinal virtues (Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance).  Each of the sins/vices and each of the virtues will be investigated.   Successful students will complete the course with an understanding of the nature and structure of each of the vices and virtues.  Successful students will also be able to apply this understanding to their own lives, seeing how the understanding can guide conduct, and aid development as a person.  Finally, successful students will improve critical reading skills, and acquire the ability to isolate, reconstruct and judge philosophical arguments.

Course Schedule Very Tentative

Abolition 1

Abolition 2

Pride 
Envy 

Anger 

Sloth

Avarice,  Gluttony 
Lust 

Aristotle, Plutarch, Aquinas

Prudence

Justice
Fortitude, Temperance