Introduction to Ethics - YBF412
Title: Introduction to Ethics
Guaranteed by: Programme Liberal Arts and Humanities (24-SHVAJ)
Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
Actual: from 2019
Semester: summer
E-Credits: 3
Examination process: summer s.:
Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/2, MC [HT]
Capacity: unknown / unknown (20)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences:  
State of the course: not taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
Guarantor: Mgr. Stanislav Synek, Ph.D.
Is incompatible with: YBAJ027
Examination dates   Schedule   Noticeboard   
Annotation -
The course will offer an elementary insight into basic ethical concepts, drawing mainly on the work of two prominent ancient philosophers - Plato and Aristotle. These will be later contrasted with two great figures representing two branches of the european enlightenment: David Hume and Immanuel Kant.
Last update: Synek Stanislav, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2019)
Literature

Obligatory:

  • Plato. Phaedo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 301 s. ISBN 0-521-30796-1.

  • Plato. The Apology. In Platón. Euthyphro; Apology of Socrates and Crito . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982, s. -. ISBN 0-19-814015-0..

  • Aristotle. Books I-III, X. In Aristotelés. Nicomachean Ethics . New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, s. -. ISBN 0-19-875271-7..

  • . Book X (Epicur). In Diogenés Laertios. Lives of eminent philosophers . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, s. -. ISBN 978-0-521-88681-9..

  • Epictetus Philosophus. The Encheiridion, or Manual. Girard: Haldeman-Julius company, 1900, 64 s. ISBN .

  • David Hume. Part 1-2. In Hume, David. An enquiry concerning the principles of morals : a critical edition . : , 1998, s. -. ISBN 978-0-19-926633-3..

  • Immanuel Kant. Introduction, Section 1-2. In Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the methaphysics of morals . Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981, s. -. ISBN 0-915145-00-6..

Last update: Synek Stanislav, Mgr., Ph.D. (19.02.2019)
Syllabus

The seminar will be based on commenting excerpts from primary texts. Students will be asked to send a short reflection of chosen passages on weekly basis.

1.       Care for soul (Plato: Apology, Phaedo)

2.       Soul and body (Plato: Phaedo)

3.       Power of rhetoric, appetites and pleasures vs. reason and moderation (Plato: Gorgias)

4.       What is happiness? (Aristotle, Nicomechean Ethics I)

5.       What is virtue? (Aristotle, Nicomechean Ethics II)

6.       What is a deliberation? (Aristotle, Nicomechean Ethics III)

7.       What is pleasure? (Aristotle, Nicomechean Ethics VII, X)

8.       Pleasure as the highest good (Epicur: Letter to Menoeceus, Maxims: DL X 121-135, 139-154)

9.       Stoics: Epiktetos (Enchyridion)

10.   Hume: An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (section 1-2)

11.   Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Introduction, 1st part

12.   Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 2nd part

Last update: Synek Stanislav, Mgr., Ph.D. (19.02.2019)
Course completion requirements

(1) short written assignments (50%)

(2) colloquium (50%)

Last update: Synek Stanislav, Mgr., Ph.D. (20.02.2019)