Moral Thinking

This seminar will cover a range of topics within contemporary moral psychology, covering (among other things), the following sorts of issues: how people arrive at their particular set of moral beliefs, the extent to which moral beliefs based on reasoning as opposed to more intuitive processes, the extent to which moral beliefs are revisable, and what causes people to revise their moral beliefs, whether moral beliefs are "special" in terms of their personal and social significance, and the extent to which people’s moral beliefs guide their behavior. Students will be expected to read and actively discuss selected papers, and will be asked to present readings at various points. There will be a final paper assignment.