Ethics in a Time of Polarization

Course Description

August 2021

Our age of polarization affects no area more than ethics. We cannot agree on what we ought to do. Yet there is a long intellectual tradition that strives for rational and objective analysis of ethical issues. This course distills the best ideas from past ethical thinkers to develop a unified intellectual framework that could help us achieve some degree of consensus. It first dispels some popular misconceptions about ethics and traces the origins of our “post-truth age.” It then derives ethical principles and applies them to a wide range of ethical dilemmas, particularly those that arise in everyday life. It avoids most hot-button political issues, because moving to these too soon interferes with the task of developing ethical brainpower. Rather, it provides the basic tools one needs to address the issues of our day. It also suggests how different cultural perspectives can be understood in an ethical framework.