PHIL 766

Special Topic: Ethics for Possible Futures

Please note: this is archived course information from 2015 for PHIL 766.

Description

Traditional moral and political philosophy focuses on relations between contemporaries – asking what we owe to present people. A prominent topic in recent moral theory is whether we need to re-imagine ethics to capture our obligations to future people. In this course, we will focus on the impact on moral and political philosophy of two credible futures: a broken world damaged by climate change or other disaster; and a digital future inhabited by super-intelligent machines. How should we think about these futures? Should we welcome or fear them?

Availability 2015

Semester 2

Lecturer(s)

Lecturer(s) Professor Timothy Mulgan

Recommended Reading

For an introduction to the issues covered in the course see: Tim Mulgan, ‘Ethics for Possible Futures’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 2014; Tim Mulgan, Ethics for a Broken World, Acumen, 2011; Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons, 1984, Part Four; Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence, Oxford University Press, 2014.

Points

PHIL 766: 15 points