Lecture Notes

UNIT ONE: HARM

Week 1

Hedonism & The Experience Machine

Well-Being (What Makes Life Good?)

Week 2

Why Death is Not Bad

Why Life is Not Good

Week 3

The Non-Identity Problem

Boonin's Solution to the Non-Identity Problem

The Counterfactual Comparative Account of Harm (Norcross)

Week 4

Non-Comparative Accounts of Harm (Bradley)

UNIT TWO: DOING AND ALLOWING HARM

Week 5

Intro to Non-Consequentialism

Euthanasia, Killing, and Letting Die

Intro to the DDA

Week 6

Making vs Allowing (Bennett)

Quinn's DDA

Withdrawing Aid

Week 8

Vaccination

Famine Relief

Against Singer (Strong vs Weak Allowing)

UNIT THREE: INTENDING AND FORESEEING HARM

Week 9

Intro to the DDE

The Problem of Closeness

Closeness as Constitution (Fitzpatrick)

Week 10

Quinn's DDE

Thomson's Doctrine (and the Trolley Problem)

The Doctrine of Triple Effect

Week 11

Thomson's Turnaround

Self-Sacrifice, Self-Defense, Human Shields

Week 12

The Moral Relevance of the Past

Week 13

Causal Impotence, Collective Harms

Week 14

More lecture notes will be posted weekly.

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