Ethics at UCSD
The philosophy department has significant interests, resources, and offerings in various parts of ethics, broadly understood, especially ethical theory, history of ethics, political philosophy, and jurisprudence. The primary focus of the ethics program is in the analytical tradition, though the department also has significant resources in the continental tradition, especially the moral and social philosophy associated with German idealism and critical theory. Undergraduate course offerings span most parts of value theory, including classics in moral and political philosophy, contemporary moral theory and metaethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, biomedical and environmental ethics, and aesthetics. The department participates in the undergraduate law and society minor. At the graduate level, faculty tend to alternate between seminars that cover central or foundational issues in ethical theory, history of ethics, political philosophy, and jurisprudence and seminars that focus on current research projects of faculty members. In recent years several graduate students have chosen to write Ph.D. theses in ethical theory or the history of ethics. Interested faculty and graduate students participate in various reading groups in ethics. Professors Arneson and Brink are affiliated faculty members in UCSD's Research Ethics Program, which has sponsored a monthly discussion group in biomedical ethics, and at the University of San Diego Law School's Institute for Law and Philosophy.
Ethics Faculty
Georgios Anagnostopoulos His interests in ancient philosophy include Greek ethics, especially the moral and political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. He is also interested in contemporary conceptions of liberalism and perfectionism.
Richard Arneson His research interests are in ethical theory and political philosophy. He has done work on a variety of issues in social and political philosophy, with a special emphasis on theories of distributive justice. He is currently working on issues concerning (1) the role of individual responsibility within a broadly egalitarian conception of social justice and (2) the prospects for consequentialist conceptions of morality. He is also interested in the moral and political philosophy of J.S. Mill.
David Brink His research interests are in ethical theory, the history of ethics, and jurisprudence. He has done work in metaethics about the objectivity of ethics and on various figures in the history of ethics, including the Greeks, Kant, Mill, Sidgwick, and Green. He is currently working on historical and systematic conceptions of practical reason, moral demands, and the normativity of ethics. Also, he works on issues in analytical and constitutional jurisprudence about the role of judicial review within a constitutional democracy and the nature and scope of rights to freedom of expression, due process, and equal protection.
Gerald Doppelt Besides his interests in philosophy of science, he is interested in issues in political philosophy, especially debates between liberals and communitarians about the nature of liberty, equality, and justice.
Michael Hardimon His research interests in the history of philosophy focus on the moral and social philosophy with the Kantian and the German idealist traditions. He also has interests in contemporary moral and political philosophy and issues involving race.
Dana Nelkin She is especially interested in ethical issues that intersect with issues in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and action theory. Currently, she is working on a book about free will and moral responsibility. She has recently written on the nature of self-deception and, with Sam Rickless, is defending a secular version of the doctrine of double effect.
Sam Rickless His interests in ancient philosophy include interests in Greek ethics, especially Plato's ethics, and he has wide ranging interests in the history of ethics, moral theory, and jurisprudence. He has recently completed a project on Kant's argument for the categorical imperative and is currently at work on the moral foundations of constitutional jurisprudence in the areas of criminal procedure, due process, and equal protection. With Dana Nelkin, he is also defending a secular version of the traditional doctrine of double effect.
Don Rutherford His interests in early modern philosophy include interests in early modern moral philosophy, especially that of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Recently, he has been concerned with a comparison between Stoic and early modern forms of perfectionism.
Other UCSD faculty with significant interests in value theory include Craig Callendar (environmental ethics), Pat Churchland (moral psychology and neuroscience), Paul Churchland (metaethics and neuroscience), Jonathan Cohen (metaethics), Wayne Martin (practical philosophy with the German idealist and continental traditions), and Eric Watkins (Kant's ethics).
Ethics Courses
- 13 Ethics
- 27 Ethics and Society
- 148 Philosophy and the Environment
- 160 Ethical Theory
- 161 Topics in the History of Ethics
- 162 Contemporary Moral Issues
- 163 Biomedical Issues
- 164 Technology and Human Values
- 166 Classics in Political Philosophy
- 167 Contemporary Political Philosophy
- 168 Philosophy of Law
- 175 Aesthetics
- 223 Ethics
- 224 Social and Political Philosophy
Law and Society Minor
Several philosophy majors and minors also minor in the Law and Society program, and several philosophy faculty (e.g. Arneson, Brink, Doppelt, and Rickless) teach courses in that program. Philosophy of Law (168) is part of the requirements for the Law and Society minor, and several other philosophy courses count toward the elective requirements.
Recent Graduate in Ethics
- Greek Political Philosophy (Anagnosopoulos)
- Skepticisim and Relativism in Greek Ethics (Anagnostopoulos)
- Greek Ethical and Political Theory (Brink)
- Hobbes's Leviathan (Rutherford)
- Stoic and Early Modern Conceptions of Ethics (Rutherford)
- Kant's Ethics (Hardimon)
- Kant's Groundwork (Rickless)
- Hegel's Philosophy of Right (Hardimon)
- T.H. Green's Prolegomena to Ethics (Brink)
- Objectivity, Normativity, and Naturalism in Ethics (Brink)
- Personal Identity and Ethics (Brink)
- Free Will and Moral Responsibility (Nelkin)
- Rationalist Ethical Theories (Arneson)
- Non-consequentialist Ethics (Rickless)
- Consequentialism and its Critics (Arneson)
- Distributive Justice (Arneson)
- Egalitarianism and Individual Responsibility (Arneson)
- Liberalism and Communitarianism (Arneson and Doppelt)
- Analytical Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory (Brink)
Recent Theisis in Ethics
- Michael LeBuffe, Two Seventeenth Century Naturalistic Ethics (1999)
- John Berteaux, Liberalism, Group Rights, and Race (1999)
- Evan Tiffany, A Naturalistic Account of Normativity (2000)
- Michael Selgelid, Ethics and Eugenics: Reproductive Decision Making in Contemporary Biological Science (2001)
- William Casebeer, Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism, and Moral Cognition (2001)
- Anne Margaret Baxley, Kant's Theory of Virtue (2001)
- Luke Robinson, Moral Particularism (in progress)
- Kory Schaff, Hegel's Economic Philosophy (in progress)
- Jeffrey Stedman, Perfectionism and the Good (in progress)
Ethics Reading Group
Periodically, interested ethics faculty and graduate students get together for an ethics reading group. Recently, a group read and discussed Christine Korsgaard's Sources of Normativity and a cluster of articles on instrumentalism about practical reason. More recently, the group examined a series of essays about dispositional views about value, practical reason, and morality. The group is currently looking at recent work in virtue theory and at moral luck as possible topics.
Research Ethics and Biomedical Ethics
Michael Kalichman, whose primary appointment is in the medical school, directs UCSD's Center for Research Ethics with the assistance of Mary Devereaux. The main purpose of the Center is to foster interdisciplinary discussion of ethical issues that arise in academic research of all kinds. However, the Center has close ties to the medical school and has broadened its mission to include a variety of topics in biomedical ethics. There is a monthly discussion group in biomedical ethics, held in the medical school, and efforts are being made to build an interdisciplinary network in biomedical ethics at UCSD. Professors Arneson and Rickless have given lectures within the Center's biomedical ethics program.
Institute for Law and Philosophy
The University of San Diego Law School recently established an Institute for Law and Philosophy, which is directed by Larry Alexander. Professors Arneson and Brink are affiliated faculty at the Law School and the Institute, and Professors Nelkin and Rickless have been involved in the Institute's programs. The Institute has sponsored several roundtable conferences on topics such as fairness and efficiency in the law, deontology, hate crime legislation, the foundations of free speech, compensation, causation and the law, and moral and legal luck, which bring together outside scholars and faculty from the USD law school and the UCSD philosophy department. It has also hosted special lectures and public debates. There is discussion underway about the possibility of establishing a joint degree program in law and philosophy that would allow interested students to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy at UCSD and a J.D. at USD.