PHIL103: Moral and Political Philosophy

John Locke and the libertarian philosophers he inspired held that justice and morality are a matter of respecting the fundamental rights that all individuals hold in common - life, liberty, and property (including the property of one's self). Libertarians like Milton Friedman argue that these principles are incompatible with the government placing restrictions on the free market. But what happens when the market itself brings our rights into conflict with one another?  In this unit, we will examine several case studies in which individual rights are disputed, and we will consider whether these cases provide sufficient reason to doubt the libertarian position.

Are individual rights enough to determine how to answer moral questions and how to propose a just society? Perhaps we need a more substantive philosophical approach to answer some of our moral and political questions. This is the position of Immanuel Kant, who suggests that we have certain moral obligations because we are human beings with moral reasoning capabilities. These capabilities lead to certain duties which we need to consider. We call Kant’s philosophy deontological, which means that it is rooted in duty.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 18 hours.