Required textbooks:

• Bernard Williams, Morality: An Introduction to Ethics
• J. J. C. Smart and Bernard Williams, Utilitarianism: For and Against
• Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy
• Bernard Williams, Moral Luck
• Bernard Williams, Truth and Truthfulness
• Bernard Williams, Shame and Necessity
• Bernard Williams, Making Sense of Humanity
• Bernard Williams, Problems of the Self

Optional textbooks:

• Bernard Williams, Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry (this is out of print, but available from Amazon, Alibris, etc.)
• Bernard Williams, ed., Obscenity and Film Censorship: An Abridgement of the Williams Report (also out of print, and unreasonably expensive when available; only for the truly determined)
• Bernard Williams, Plato: The Invention of Philosophy (also out of print)

Most of these books have been in print for quite a while, and you can save money by finding them used. Amazon often has them discounted, as well.

Further readings will be made available over the course of the semester.

1. Aug. 24. Introduction: Three Reasons to Think Through Bernard Williams. Optional pre-reading: Obituary in the Guardian.

2. Aug. 26. Getting Bored to Death. Reading: Williams, "The Makropulos Case," ch. 6 in Problems of the Self

   Optional reading: J. David Velleman, "Well-Being and Time" (online reserve).

3. Aug. 29. Utilitarianism. Reading: Morality, pp. 82-98; "A Critique of Utilitarianism", in Utilitarianism: For and Against, through p. 100.

   Optional reading: J. J. C. Smart, "An Outline of a System of Utilitarian Ethics", in Utilitarianism: For and Against (recommended if this is the first time you're encountering utilitarianism).

4. Aug. 31. Is Utilitarianism Self-Effacing? Reading: "A Critique of Utilitarianism", in Utilitarianism: For and Against, through end.

   Optional reading: Morality, pp. 95 (last para.) to p. 98.

5. Sept. 2. The Integrity Objection. "Utilitarianism and Moral Self-Indulgence," ch. 3 of Moral Luck.

   Optional reading: R. Lanier Anderson and Joshua Landy, "Philosophy as Self-Fashioning: Alexander Nehamas's Art of Living" (online reserve).

6. Sept. 5. LABOR DAY -- NO CLASS

7. Sept. 7. Integrity and Internal Reasons. Reading: "Internal and External Reasons", in Moral Luck.

   Optional reading: John McDowell, "Might There Be External Reasons?" (online reserve)

8. Sept. 9. More Internalism. Further optional reading: Christine Korsgaard, "Skepticism about Practical Reason" (JSTOR link); Elijah Millgram, "Williams' Argument against External Reasons" (JSTOR link); Bernard Williams, "Some Further Notes on Internal and External Reasons" (online reserve).
9. Sept. 12. What's At Stake in Internalism? Reading: Morality, pp. 3-37 (Canto ed.): "The Amoralist," "Subjectivism: First Thoughts," "Interlude: Relativism," "Subjectivism: Further Thoughts."

   Optional reading: "Egoism and Altruism," Problems of the Self, ch. 15.

10. Sept. 14. The Obscurity of Internal Reasons. Reading: "Internal Reasons and the Obscurity of Blame", in Making Sense of Humanity.

    Optional reading: Pamela Hieronymi, "Internal Reasons and the Integrity of Blame" (online reserve); ELP 192-193.

11. Sept. 16. NO CLASS. (I'll be giving a talk at the University of Oklahoma.)

12. Sept. 19. Extending the Integrity Objection. Reading: "Persons, Character, and Morality", in Moral Luck.

    Optional reading: Barbara Herman, "Integrity and Impartiality" (online reserve).

13. Sept. 21. Moral Luck; One Thought Too Many. Reading: "Moral Luck", in Moral Luck.

    Optional reading: "Moral Luck: A Postscript", in Making Sense of Humanity.

14. Sept. 23. Travels with Gauguin. Review "Moral Luck".

    Optional further reading: Pamela Hieronymi, the appendix to "Extrinsic Reasons, Alienation, and Moral Philosophy, on "Williams and Extrinsic Reasons" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

15. Sept. 26. Sorting Out the Metaethics: Emotivism and Prescriptivism. Reading: "Morality and the Emotions", in Problems of the Self. Review Morality, "Subjectivism: First Thoughts" (pp. 14-19 in Canto ed.).

    Optional reading: "Imperative Inference", in Problems of the Self; R. M. Hare, The Language of Morals (excerpt; online reserve).

16. Sept. 28. Sorting Out the Metaethics: Realism about Value? Reading: "Good", in Morality (pp. 38-47 of the Canto edition). "Consistency and Realism", in Problems of the Self.

    Optional: "Ought and Moral Obligation", in Moral Luck.

    Further optional reading: Peter Geach, "Assertion" (online reserve).

17. Sept. 30. Practical Consistency, Realism and Tragedy. Reading: "Ethical Consistency", in Problems of the Self. Morality (Canto ed.), pp. 85-89 (from "Fourth, utilitarianism provides..." to "the commensurability of value"). "Conflicts of Values," in Moral Luck.

    Optional reading: Martha Nussbaum, "The Protagoras: A Science of Practical Reasoning" (chapter 4 in Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, on reserve in Marriott).

    FIRST PAPERS DUE TODAY

18. Oct. 3. Personal Identity (I). Reading: "Personal Identity and Individuation", in Problems of the Self.

    Optional: "Bodily Continuity and Personal Identity", in Problems of the Self.

MODEL PAPER ON RESERVE IN THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT

19. Oct. 5. Personal Identity (II). Reading: "The Self and the Future", in Problems of the Self.

    Optional: "Imagination and the Self", in Problems of the Self.

20. Oct. 7. FALL BREAK -- NO CLASS

21. Oct. 10. Personal Identity: Straw-manning Strawson. Reading: "Are Persons Bodies?", in Problems of the Self.

    Optional: "Strawson on Individuals", in Problems of the Self. Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons, pp. 293-297 (online reserve).

22. Oct. 12. Personal Identity: Philosophy of Body. Reading: "Resenting One's Own Existence", in Making Sense of Humanity.

    Optional: Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons, secs. 83-86 (online reserve); "Which Slopes are Slippery?", in Making Sense of Humanity.

23. Oct. 14. Morality Demoralized (or, 'Ethics'). Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, ch. 1.

    Optional: Cartesian Bodies. Williams, Descartes: The Project of Pure Inquiry, ch. 4.

TOPICS FOR THE SECOND PAPER HAVE BEEN HANDED OUT. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COPY.

24. Oct. 17. Is the Ethical Question Merely 'Pure Inquiry'? Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, ch. 2.

    Optional: Cartesian Minds. Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry, ch. 10.

25. Oct. 19. Epistemic Voluntarism. "Deciding to Believe" (in Problems of the Self).

    Optional: Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry, ch. 6.

26. Oct. 21. Who Are You? ELP chs. 2-3.

    Optional: "Rawls and Pascal's Wager" (in Moral Luck); compare ELP p. 63.

27. Oct. 24. What's the Difference Between Theoretical and Practical Reason (Again)? ELP chs. 4-5. (In ch. 4, pay special attention to the para. bridging pp. 59-60, and pp. 65 (last para.) to 69.)

28. Oct. 26. 'Is' and 'Ought'. ELP ch. 7.

29. Oct. 28. Is Ethical Theory Possible? ELP ch. 6.

    Optional: Descartes, ch. 2; "The Point of View of the Universe" (in Making Sense of Humanity).

30. Oct. 31. Thick Ethical Concepts. ELP, pp. 129 (11 lines up, "What has happened...") to 130 (end of first para., "...by the all-purpose prescriptive term ought; ch. 8.

    Optional: Does Justice Fit Inside Ethics? "Justice as a Virtue" (in Moral Luck).

31. Nov. 2. More Thick Ethical Concepts (and Is `The Will' One of Them?). "Nietzsche's Minimal Moral Psychology" (in MSH).

    Extremely optional: Obscenity and Film Censorship (the "Williams Report"), ch. 8, and pp. 119-127.

32. Nov. 4. Thick Ethical Concepts, Fact and Value. Hilary Putnam, The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy, pp. 34-43 (online reserve).

    Optional: "Acts, Omissions, and Not Doing" (in MSH); Hilary Putnam, "Objectivity and the Science/Ethics Distinction" (online reserve).

33. Nov. 7. Demoing Ethics without Theory. Shame and Necessity, chs. 1-2.

    Optional: "The Idea of Equality" (in PS).

MODEL PAPERS FROM THE SECOND ROUND NOW ON RESERVE IN THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT

34. Nov. 9. The Relativism of Distance. ELP ch. 9; "The Truth in Relativism" (in Moral Luck).

    Optional: Review "Interlude: Relativism", in Morality.

35. Nov. 11. Agency -- Greek and Modern. Shame and Necessity, ch. 3.

    Optional: Jonathan Lear, "Knowledge and Abandonment: An Oedipus for Our Time" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

36. Nov. 14. Shame and Guilt: Two More Thick Ethical Concepts. Shame and Necessity, ch. 4 (to p. 97).

    Optional: Shame and Necessity, Endnote 1 (pp. 219-223).

37. Nov. 16. I Just Can't: Extending the Concept of Character. "Practical Necessity", in ML.

    Optional: "Moral Incapacity", in MSH; SN ch. 5; ELP 187 (bot.)-191.

38. Nov. 18. The Failure of Ethical Cartesianism. SN pp. 97 (last para. ) to 102, 155-end.

    Optional: "The Analogy of City and Soul in Plato's Republic" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

39. Nov. 21. Craig's List: A Model for a Theory of Truth. "Evolutionary Theory and Epistemology" (in MSH).

    Optional: Craig, Knowledge and the State of Nature.

40. Nov. 23. Relativism Redux: The Emergence of Objectivity (or, Omega-Incomplete Calendars). Truth and Truthfulness, ch. 7 ("What Was Wrong with Minos?").

    Optional: The Hurley-Davidson Glitch. "Saint-Just's Illusion" (in MSH); Truth and Truthfulness, ch. 1.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING -- HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY -- THINK ABOUT YOUR FINAL PAPER

41. Nov. 28. Can Ethics Be Naturalized? "Evolutionary Ethics and the Representation Problem" (in MSH).

    Optional: "Making Sense of Humanity" (in MSH).

42. Nov. 30. Genealogy vs. State of Nature Arguments. Truth and Truthfulness, ch. 2.

    Optional: "Formal and Substantive Individualism" (in MSH); ELP p. 201 (from first full para) to 202.

43. Dec. 2. Why Was the Representation Problem a Problem? Truth and Truthfulness, ch. 3.

    Optional: ELP pp. 198 (2nd full para., "This has been a book...") to 201 (end 1st para., "...counts as something").

44. Dec. 5. Losing the Science/Ethics Distinction? Truth and Truthfulness, ch. 5.

    Optional: TT, ch. 4.

45. Dec. 7. If Williams Was the Philosopher of Common Sense, What Do the Incoherences in His View Teach Us? Truth and Truthfulness, ch. 6.

    Optional: "Who Needs Ethical Knowledge?" (in MSH).

    GRADED UNDERGRADUATE FINAL PAPERS ARE AVAILABLE FROM JESSICA MILLER IN THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT