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Lecturer(s)
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Fišerová Michaela, doc. Mgr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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1) Definition of ethics and its position within philosophical thought. Overlaps of ethics into other areas of human cognition and its interdisciplinary form. 2) The classical period of Greek philosophy. The ethical background of Socrates? conflict with the Athenian community. Plato?s concept of the soul and the motives of human action. Aristotle?s concept of virtue. Implications of mediocrity as a presumption of virtue for human action. 3) Epicureanism and skepticism. Epicurus? justification of self-sufficiency, the dialectic of sorrow and pleasure, ataraxia. Defining the difference between Epicureanism and Hedonism. Pyrrhon?s skepticism and the consequences of ethical relativism. 4) Ethics of Stoicism. Acting in accordance with the idea of order. Seneca?s critique of society. Lucretius? conception of nature as an ancient law. 5) Christian ethics and its relationship to the Jewish and Greek thought tradition. Augustine?s conception of the soul in terms of the relationship between imagination and goodness. The Ethical Justification of Poverty Compared to Stoic Tendencies to Asceticism. 6) Renaissance theme of authority and egoism of the ruler: Machiavelli, Hobbes. A flexible conception of human virtue and nature: de Montaigne, La Boétie. 7) Modern ethics of freedom. Enlightenment critique of the social contract: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau. Freedom and tolerance in the empiricism of Humeand Locke. 8) Spinoza?s ethics of pantheism. The difference between ethics and morality. Reasons for criticizing the religious dimension of morality in Spinoza and Nietzsche. 9) Kant?s foundation of ethics on duties. The relationship between the sense of the sublime and the moral law. Problems of imperative-based ethics, ethics of intention and questioning the imprtance of success. 10) Utilitarian ethics of the 19th century. The difference between Mill?s approach and Bentham?s. Normative regulation of human lives and the social dimension of utilitarianism. 11) Ethics of alterity and plurality based on criticism of totalitarianism of the 20th century. Traumatic reaction to the Holocaust and various forms of violence: Jaspers, Arendt, Lévinas, Lyotard. 12) Bioethics and ecological ethics of today. Basic differences between biocentric and ecocentric approaches. Defining the role of technology and nature in human life: Derrida, Stiegler, Haraway, Burgat.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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unspecified, unspecified
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Learning outcomes
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The subject introduces the defining lines of the European thought tradition from the point of view of ethically oriented philosophy. The subject offers a chronological overview of influential ethical thinkers, trends and concepts dealing with human nature, virtue, government, law, freedom, tolerance, utility, duty, nature, violence.
- Knowledge of the historical development of ethics - Knowledge of thought traditions of ethically oriented philosophy - Overview of influential ethical thinkers, directions and concepts
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Prerequisites
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none
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Assessment methods and criteria
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unspecified
Verification of orientation in the discussed texts in the form of a quiz. Alternatively, students may prepare a resume of one chosen text and present it in the corresponding seminar lesson.
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Recommended literature
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Aristotelés. Etika Nikomachova. Praha, 1996.
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Augustinus, Aurelius. Vyznání. Praha: Kalich, 2006.
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Kant, I. Základy metafyziky mravů. Praha, 1990.
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Locke. Dopis o toleranci. Brno, 2000.
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MILL, J. S. Vybrané spisy o etice, společnosti a politice. Praha, 2018. ISBN 978-80-7298-237-0.
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MONTAIGNE, M. DE. Eseje. Praha, 1996. ISBN 80-85913-12-7.
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Platón. Obrana Sókrata. Praha, 2005.
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Rousseau, J. J. O společenské smlouvě. Praha, 2002.
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Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Výbor z listů Luciliovi. Praha: Svoboda, 1969.
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Spinoza. Etika. Praha, 1997.
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