Introduction to Social Ethics

How should we live together? Why ethical virtues (justice, courage, temperance, etc.) can be considered as social skills? Which is the connection between human beings? desire for society and the development of particular forms of association? What is the role of institutions in society? Why and when is anyone entitled to exercise power? What does it mean that a state must be virtuous and conform to the pursuit of individual and social happiness? In what sense states have both power and moral authority over their citizens? What is the difference between equality, equity, and justice? This course aims at providing answers to these key questions with reference to the major ancient, modern, and contemporary social ethical theories in Western philosophy. Specifically, it will deal with the social ethical perspectives developed in the fields of eudaimonism (Plato, Aristotle), contractualism (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant), utilitarianism (Mill), deontological theory of justice (Rawls) and virtue ethics (MacIntyre). From the consideration of these core views, the course will acquaint students with concepts and methods useful for a critical understanding of the social dimension of human life. In doing so, students will develop their capacity to pursue ethical inquiry about sharing understandings, rules, and principles, at play in the social sphere. They will be provided with the necessary skills to evaluate selected texts and passages of Western thinkers concerned with the problem of social cohesion.