Admission requirements
Good comprehension of English will be required.
Description
Moral rationalists (like Immanuel Kant) claim that normative judgments (“X is right/wrong”) are a matter of genuine practical reason, moral sentimentalists (like David Hume) claim that it is a matter of emotional responses.
In recent years, empirical moral psychologists have posed some serious challenges to the rationalist view, arguing that moral sensitivity is due to our emotional sensitivity and that moral judgments resemble disgust responses more than rational deliberation. Using cutting-edge scientific methods, these “experimental” philosophers and psychologists have claimed that moral judgment is performed in brain areas associated with emotion, that moral reasoning can often, or even usually, be shown to be post hoc confabulation or that moral judgments follow unconscious rules that subjects are not themselves aware of.
This seminar aims at a systematic reading of some of the most important literature on these issues and tries to develop a philosophical assessment of its implications.
Course objectives
Course objectives will be posted on Blackboard by the start of the course.
Timetable
See Rooster BA Wijsbegeerte 2010-2011
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Test method
Oral presentations and paper.
Blackboard
Course material will be available on Blackboard
Reading list
Course material will be available on Blackboard
Registration
Please register for this course on uTwist. See registration procedure
Exchange and Study Abroad students, please see the Study in Leiden website for information on how to apply
Aanmelden voor Contractonderwijs via: e.klumper@phil.leidenuniv.nl
Contact
H.C. Sauer, MA: h.c.sauer@phil.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
Specialisation: Ethics and Political Philosophy