Programme

Week 1  – Overview of Metaethics
(no reading).

Week 2 – The Open Question Argument
Moore, G. E. (1903). Principia Ethica, Cambridge UP: chapter 1, sections x-xx(5-15?).

Week 3  – Smith’s Central Problem
Smith, M. (1994) The Moral Problem, Blackwell: chapter 1.

Week 4 – Cognitivism without Realism
Mackie, J. (1977). Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, Penguin: chapter 1.

Week 5 – Simple Non-cognitivism
Ayer, A. J. (1946). Language, Truth and Logic (Rev. ed.), Victor Gollancz.: chapter 6.

Week 6  – Subtle Non-cognitivism
Blackburn (1985) Spreading the Word, OxfordUP: chapter 6.

Week 7 – Nonreductive Naturalist Realism
Boyd. R. (1988)  ‘How to Be a Moral Realist’,  In G. Sayre-McCord (ed.), Essays on Moral Realism, CornellUP.

Week 8  – Dispositionalism
Lewis, D. (1989).‘Dispositionalist Theories of Value’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 63: 113-137.

Week 9  – Internal vs. External Reasons I
Williams, B. (1980). ‘Internal and External Reasons’, In R. Harrison (ed.), Rational Action, CambridgeUP.

Week 10  – Internal vs. External Reasons II
Foot, P. (1972). ‘Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives’, The Philosophical Review 81(3): 305-316.

Week 11 – Realism and Evolution
Street, S. (2006)  ‘A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value’, Philosophical Studies, 127: 109-166 (selected parts).

Week 12 – Constructivism
Street, S. (2010), ‘What is Constructivism in Ethics and Metaethics’, Philosophy Compass, 5: 363-384.

Week 13 – Essay discussion