Week 12 · Readings & resources

Week 12 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Philosophy Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 12 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 89–109 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more depth, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (19–24 min total)

① Testing a maxim the way Kant does

Chapter 12, Section “Test a maxim: the formula of universal law” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Duty, maxims, and Kant's two formulas” · Remember: the universal-law test asks whether your rule could work for everyone, not how you would like to be treated.

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, by Immanuel Kant, translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott — Project Gutenberg — the whole Groundwork in Abbott's English, free to read online. Choose the read-online version and search it for the words universal law and then means only to find the two formulas the course quotes; then say who wrote the German and whose English words you are reading. The later discussion of freedom goes beyond this week. (reading, 10–15 min)
Kant & Categorical Imperatives: Crash Course Philosophy #35 — CrashCourse — an episode that separates hypothetical from categorical imperatives with a getting-a-job and a studying example, tests a stealing maxim for universalizability, and explains treating people as ends rather than as mere means, with a loan you would not agree to if you were lied to. It quotes both formulas in a different, modern translation, not Abbott's, so do not copy its wording as the course's quotation; its story about a would-be murderer at the door and its claim that Kant listed four formulations are the episode's own and not pinned in this course. This builds on Week 11's utilitarianism, which the episode names as Kant's opposite. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
The Categorical Imperative - Immanuel Kant — Philosophy Vibe — a four-minute animated dialogue, cut from a longer video, that separates hypothetical imperatives (if you want to be on time, leave now) from categorical ones, runs the universal-law test on lying, where a world of liars would leave no one able to trust anyone, and on picking flowers in a park, and states the humanity formula with a slave owner forcing people to build. It adds a third formula, the kingdom of ends, which the course does not teach. Its gloss of the first formula, act only as you would want everyone else to act, drifts toward the golden-rule reading the chapter warns against; the test asks whether your maxim could hold as a law for everyone, whatever anyone wants. Its wording of both formulas is a different translation from Abbott's, and the clip stops as its speakers begin on the objections. Use it while working through the Week-12 module overview. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)

② Courage, character, and the mean

Chapter 12, Section “Find the mean and practice it” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Virtue ethics, the mean, and habituation” · Remember: the mean is the fitting response for this person in this situation, built by practice.

Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, by Aristotle, translated by W. D. Ross — The Internet Classics Archive — the primary text of Book II in Ross's English. Read the first chapter, on how virtue of character comes about by habit, and then the passage that calls virtue a mean relative to us, lying between a vice of excess and a vice of defect; that phrase relative to us is the reason the mean is not a fixed halfway point. The English words are the translator's, and the course pins no quotation from Aristotle, so describe what you read in your own words. The later chapters' long list of particular virtues goes beyond this week. (reading, 15–20 min)
Aristotle & Virtue Theory: Crash Course Philosophy #38 — CrashCourse — an episode on Aristotle's idea of function, courage as the virtue between cowardice and recklessness tested on a street emergency where calling for help can be the brave act, habituation and learning from people of good character, and eudaimonia as a life well lived rather than a passing mood. It calls the mean a midpoint and a sweet spot; check that wording against the chapter, where the mean is the fitting response for this person in this situation, which the episode's own street example shows. Its points about function and practical wisdom go beyond what the course pins. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)
Virtue Ethics — The Ethics Centre — a three-minute explainer on how our actions shape our character, why acting as the most generous version of yourself builds the habit, and how looking for a mean between two extremes can guide a hard choice, tried on giving honest feedback to a coworker whose project went badly. It calls the mean a middle option; read that as the fitting response the chapter describes, not an exact midpoint. Its closing questions about your own habits are a good warm-up for the discussion. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

③ One trolley, three theories

Chapter 12, Section “Run the trolley: Foot's case and Thomson's name” · Session 2, Segment 3, “The runaway trolley and three theories on one case” · Remember: Foot devised the case, Thomson named it, and the course keys no answer to it.

Trolley problem, section: Original dilemma — Wikipedia — a reference article. Read the Original dilemma section, which quotes Foot's tram driver who can steer from one track to another beside her case of a judge facing rioters, and then the Fat Man section, the article's name for the footbridge variation; the course's version gives the stranger a heavy backpack instead. The article's survey figures, its claim that a utilitarian must steer, and its later sections on self-driving cars and television go beyond this week. Stop here before social contract theory; next week takes that up. (reading, 10–15 min)
The Trolley Problem - Explained and Debated — Philosophy Vibe — an animated debate between two speakers that credits the case to Philippa Foot, runs the switch from a utilitarian count and from a duty not to kill, then moves to the bridge variation and a transplant-surgeon case. It credits the bridge version to Judith Jarvis Thomson and leans on a doctrine of double effect; the course pins neither detail, so treat both as the video's own, and notice that it calls Kant's duty not to kill a categorical imperative without quoting any formula. Skip the closing book advertisement. (video, 13 min) (captions: automatic)
What Everyone Gets WRONG About THE Trolley Problem: The Trolley Problem Explained — Casual Philosophy — a five-minute explainer arguing that the real trolley problem is not what you would do in one case but why our judgments differ between similar cases, such as the switch and a surgeon who could take one patient's organs to save five. It credits the tram case to Philippa Foot in 1967 and the name to Judith Jarvis Thomson's 1976 paper, but later slips and calls that paper 1967, and it calls the switch case easy; the course keys no answer to any trolley case, so read that as the speaker's view. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Kant's Moral Philosophy, section 6: The Humanity Formula — online Encyclopedia of Philosophy (reference entry) — read section 6 for why the humanity formula is often taken as the heart of Kant's view and why it does not rule out using people as means, only treating them as means only; sections 4 and 5, on the two kinds of imperative and the universal-law test, are good review. Skip the later sections on autonomy, the kingdom of ends, and metaethics. (reading, 10–15 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com