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Week 12 · Module overview

Week 12 — Ethics III: Kant, Virtue, and the Trolley Problem

Introduction to Philosophy Free sample edition

Why this matters

A business major deciding whether to cover for a coworker and a nursing student weighing a hard truth both face this week's question: does duty, character, or the count decide what is right?

In plain language

Last week you met a theory that judges an act by the happiness it brings about. This week you meet two theories that look somewhere else. Immanuel Kant asks about duty (what morality requires of you, whatever you want) and about respecting every person. Aristotle asks about character (the kind of person your acts show you to be) and about living a good life as a whole. Then a famous puzzle about a runaway trolley puts all three theories on one case, so you can see where they agree and where they part, without anyone naming a winner.

  • Already covered: Week 2 gave you standard form and validity; Weeks 10 and 11 asked whether morality is relative and met utilitarianism.
  • This week: Kant's maxims and two formulas, Aristotle's virtue ethics and the mean, and the runaway trolley.
  • How they connect: Week 11 judged acts by results; this week asks whether duty and character matter too.
  • Where we're going next: Week 13 asks what makes a government legitimate.

Focus

Is an act right because of its results, the duty behind it, or the character it shows?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

  • [ ] run a maxim through the universal-law test
  • [ ] tell "never as means only" from "never as means"
  • [ ] explain why the mean is not a halfway point
  • [ ] compare three theories on the trolley without naming a winner

To-do

Plan your week

  1. Read Chapter 12 (~45–55 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
  2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
  3. Do the practice exercises (15–25 minutes).
  4. Do the Philosophy Workshop (about 90 minutes), discussion, and assignment.
  5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: run one maxim through the 3-step universal-law test, and say why the trolley problem has no keyed answer.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if stuck.

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