What is the "right" thing to do?
In the Republic, Plato tells the story of the ring of gyges: a magical ring that enables the wearer to become invisible. Plato uses the story to ask questions about our motivations for behaving virtuously: can we find a reason to be good if nobody is watching? We used this as an introduction to the question above - what is the right thing to do in any given situation?
We then investigated our own responses to several famous thought experiments: Jim and Pedro in the jungle - would you killl one man to save ten? (Bernard Williams) If you were a Jew in hiding would you suffocate a newborn baby in order to prevent Nazi soldiers hearing cries and finding you? (Link to one such example) How would you respond to the trolley problem?
Next, we applied the big ideas of John Stuart Mill and Kant to these problems - what would they do? We invented our own thought experiments in order to test out their theories - does either theory always give a good answer?
Lastly, we attempted to analyse and evaluate these big ideas - When do they work? When don't they work? What do they value? What don't they?
We then investigated our own responses to several famous thought experiments: Jim and Pedro in the jungle - would you killl one man to save ten? (Bernard Williams) If you were a Jew in hiding would you suffocate a newborn baby in order to prevent Nazi soldiers hearing cries and finding you? (Link to one such example) How would you respond to the trolley problem?
Next, we applied the big ideas of John Stuart Mill and Kant to these problems - what would they do? We invented our own thought experiments in order to test out their theories - does either theory always give a good answer?
Lastly, we attempted to analyse and evaluate these big ideas - When do they work? When don't they work? What do they value? What don't they?