| LEC # | TOPICS | LECTURE NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introductory Lecture | |
| I. Goodness | ||
| 2 | Pleasure | Pleasure and the Good Life (PDF) |
| 3 | Desire Satisfaction | Goodness and Rational Desire (PDF) |
| 4 | Objective List Theories | Objective Goods and the Good Life (PDF) |
| 5 | Environmentalism | Value and the Environment (PDF) |
| 6 | Animal Rights | Animal Liberation (PDF) |
| 7 | Immortality | Is Death a Misfortune? (PDF) |
| II. Right and Wrong | ||
| 8 | Egoism and Skepticism | Moral Theory: Skepticism and Egoism (PDF) |
| 9 | Religion and Morality | Religion and Morality (PDF) |
| 10 | Relativism and Toleration | Moral Relativism, Moral Isolation (PDF) |
| 11 | Utilitarianism, Deontology and Virtue | Three Moral Theories (PDF) |
| 12 | Continuing Moral Theory | Virtue (PDF) |
| III. Justice | ||
| 13 | Global Justice | Duty and Famine (PDF) |
| 14 | Equality | Social Values: Liberty and Equality (PDF) |
| 15 | Social Justice | Rawls: Liberal Egalitarianism and Justice as Fairness (PDF) |
| 16 | Race, Gender, Poverty | Analyzing Structures (PDF) |
| 17 | Welfare and Freedom | Welfare, Work and Family (PDF) |
| IV. Punishment and the Death Penalty | ||
| 18 | Vengeance, Retribution, Reform | Punishment (PDF) |
| 19 | Punishment and the Body | Punishment and Discipline (PDF) |
| 20 | Death Penalty and Deterrence | The Death Penalty and Deterrence (PDF) |
| 21 | Race and the Death Penalty | Race and the Death Penalty (PDF) |
| V. Sexuality and Marriage | ||
| 22 | The Purpose of Sex | Sexual Morality (PDF) |
| 23 | (Film in lecture, but keep reading) | |
| 24 | Other Sexualities | Family Forms (PDF) |
| 25 | Marriage and Gay Marriage | Gay Marriage (PDF) |
| 26 | Final Lecture | |
Table of Contents
Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes
 When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more. |
This section features the majority of lecture notes for the course (please note: notes are not available for all lectures). Parenthetical citations are found throughotu the notes; when these citations consist solely of a page number without the author or title of the work, the source is Morality Matters, the course's main text:
Di Leo, Jeffrey R., ed. Morality Matters: Race, Class, and Gender in Applied Ethics. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2002. ISBN: 0072840757.
Please refer to the readings for information about the specific authors being discussed and cited.