98919 - Metaphysics (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to deal with the fundamental themes of Metaphysics, from the Greeks to the present day, in order to offer the knowledge and skills to develop the main philosophical concepts underlying the various theories of the principles of reality and experience. The fundamental techniques of metaphysical argumentation and the worldviews that correspond to these arguments will be considered.

Course contents

Course title:

The Ontological and Metaphysical Implications of Morality: Antirealism, Naturalism, and Nonnaturalism

Description:

When I think or say that a person is good or a law is unjust, am I talking about certain particular properties that that person or that law possesses (so-called “values”), or am I expressing feelings of approval or disapproval that those things arouse in me? Are goodness, evil, justice, etc., properties that we discover in the world, or are they the result of our feelings and preferences being projected onto a world that is in itself indifferent to value? If values are real properties, what is their nature and how do we know them? How can we explain the strange powers they have over us—they push us to do certain things and not others, they make us feel guilty, they arouse our admiration or indignation, etc.—powers that the non-moral properties of things do not seem to have? If they are projections of our feelings, why do we talk about them as if they were properties of things? These are the kinds of questions philosophers ask when they engage in metaethics, the branch of contemporary philosophical research that investigates the ontological, metaphysical, epistemological, and psychological assumptions of moral thought and discourse.

The course has three purposes: 1) to introduce students to metaethics, to the fundamental texts that gave rise to the discipline, to the main theoretical orientations that have developed on their basis, to the most frequently studied research topics, to the lexicon, the argumentative methods and strategies that characterize philosophical reflection in this particular field; 2) to discuss the ontological implications of morality, i.e., the contrast between realism (G.E. Moore) and anti-realism (J.L. Mackie, G. Harman) with regard to values and the arguments brought to support the two positions; 3) to discuss the metaphysical implications of morality, examining the naturalistic form of moral realism (with particular reference to R. Boyd and to Cornell realism) and its non-naturalistic form (with particular reference to J. McDowell's dispositionalism and D. Enoch's ‘robust’ realism).

 

Readings/Bibliography

Exam program:

Module I (Introduction to metaethics):

1) G. Mancuso, La metaetica. Un’introduzione, Carocci, Rome 2024, chapters 1 and 2;

 

Module II (Realism and Anti-Realism):

 

2) G.E. Moore, Principia ethica, a cura di S. Cremaschi e M. Reichlin, testo inglese a fronte, Bompiani, Milano 2023, pp. 5-243 (it will be available on Virtuale).

3) J.L. Mackie,

Etica: inventare il giusto e l’ingiusto, a cura di B. De Mori, Giappichelli, Roma 2001, cap. I, pp. 21-55 (it will be available on Virtuale).

4) G. Harman, The Nature of Morality. An Introduction to Ethics, Oxford University Press, New York 1977, chap. I, pp. 1-10 (it will be available on Virtuale).

 

Module III (Naturalism and Nonnaturalism):

 

5) G. Mancuso, La metaetica. Un’introduzione, Carocci, Rome 2024, chap. 3;

6) R. Boyd, How To Be a Moral Realist, pp. 182-187, 196-217 of G. Sayre McCord (ed.), Essays on Moral Realism, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (it will be available on Virtuale).

7) J. McDowell, Values and Secondary Qualities, in Id., Mind, Value, and Reality, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) and London 1998, pp. 131-150 (it will be available on Virtuale).

8) D. Enoch, Non-Naturalistic Realism in Metaethics, in T. McPherson and D. Plunkett (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Metaethics, Routledge, New York 2018, pp. 29-42 (it will be available on Virtuale).

Since the lecture recordings and course slides will be available on Virtuale, the exam program is identical for attending and non-attending students; non-attending students are therefore required to view the recorded lectures and slides that will be uploaded to Virtuale, which are an integral part of the exam program.

 

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures, textual commentary, class discussions on specific issues, slides projection

Assessment methods

Oral exams aiming to assessing the student's ability to present, criticize and discuss the topics proposed in the course.

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)
Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders are entitled to special adjustments according to their condition, subject to assessment by the University Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD. Please do not contact teachers or Department staff, but make an appointment with the Service. The Service will then determine what adjustments are specifically appropriate, and get in touch with the teacher. For more information, please visit the page:
https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

During the academic year, exams are scheduled for the following months:

- May

- June

- July

- September

- October

- November

- December

- February

 

Grade assessment criteria

30 cum laude – Outstanding. Excellent knowledge and depth of understanding. Excellent presentation.

30 – Very Good. Detailed knowledge with hints of critical thinking. Very good presentation.

Grade range 27-29 – Good. Comprehensive knowledge. Good presentation.

Grade range 24-26 – Acceptable. Elementary knowledge of the key principles and concepts. The presentation is occasionally weak.

Grade range 21-23 – Adequate. The knowledge is superficial, but the thread of the discussion has been consistently grasped. Presentation with some inadequacies.

Grade range 18-21 – Pass. Limited and superficial knowledge of the subject, a significant inability to follow the thread of the discussion. Presentation with many inadequacies.

Grade range below 18 – Fail. Poor knowledge of core material, a significant inability to engage with the discipline. Very poor presentation.

Teaching tools

Blackboard, PC,PowerPoint

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Mancuso