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The Deviant Philosopher > Ethics

Ethics

Exercise: Find a Political Philosoph-her

This assignment instructs students to look at the website, Philosopher (originally Political Philosop-her), created and maintained by Meena Krishnamurthy at politicalphilosopher.net. The site, as Prof. Krishnamurthy says, “showcases work by philosophers from underrepresented groups in philosophy.” [hotlink for this quote: https://meenakrishnamurthy.net/]

Lesson: Kantian Ethics and Angelina Grimké’s Letter 12 to Katherine Beecher

This lesson has two main purposes. The first is to illustrate to students how one could apply the Kantian argument that one should not treat others merely as means. This is done by introducing them to an open letter written by the early feminist and abolitionist writer and activist Angelina Grimké in 1838 in which she explicitly argues that men have treated women as mere means. The second is to draw attention, in a way meaningful for students, to the fact that when we think about right and wrong, we often fail to consider others in really problematic ways that later seem obviously mistaken.

Lesson: Understanding the Literary Style of the Analects

On a first reading – and a second and third – Analects does not always seem to Western readers like a philosophical work. In place of crisp definitions, arguments, and replies to criticisms, one finds anecdotes, snippets of conversations, and descriptions of what might seem trivialities – like how Confucius liked to straighten his mat! Many therefore find Analects dull, puzzling, strange, cryptic, frustrating or – worse – as a pseudo-philosophical text empty of any genuine moral insight. Such attitudes are encouraged by a history of racist and distorting stereotypes of aged sages spouting cryptic lines of ‘Oriental wisdom’.

Lesson: Daoism, Dao, and Metaphor

Daoism is the philosophy of the Way (dao), but an immediate problem is that, as the famous opening lines of the Daodejing tells us, dao ‘cannot be spoken of’. Although the early Daoists offer us different arguments about why dao is ineffable, they agree that it is not amenable to literal propositional description. But this does not mean that we are left empty-handed, for we can draw upon other ways of speaking…

Lesson: Phintys of Sparta on Role Virtues

This lesson focuses on a fragment of text from the Pythagorean philosopher Phintys (probably of Sparta, c. 4 th -3 rd century BCE) on gender-specific virtues. This text can be fruitfully compared with other texts on the same topic.