Moral psychology

Moral psychology (PHIL 415/545)

Lecturer: Sandy Berkovski

Spring 2021

Contact details: sandy.berkovski+comment@gmail.com
Office hours: Wed 13:30-15:30, and by appointment

Readings

Readings for this course consist of articles. There is only one source: the electronic collection provided by the lecturer.

[Ber21]: Y. S. Berkovski. Moral psychology: Course reader. Link to the .pdf file forwarded at the beginning of the semester.

Preliminary term schedule

Abbreviations: `Author[i]' designates item #i in [Ber21]. Starred items demand especially close scrutiny, either because of the significance of their arguments, or because of their sophistication, or both. Items with a dagger will be discussed only in passing (but remember that every item on the list is a required reading).

Week 1: Introduction
Week 1: Case study: incest taboo: Williams[1], *Wolf[2], Wolf[3]
Week 2: Disgust: *Nemeroff and Rozin[4], †Rozin and Nemeroff[5], Tybur et al.[6].
Weeks 3-5: Reason and moral judgement: Haidt[7], †Haidt and Joseph[8], *Green[9], *Berker[10].
Weeks 6-7: Case study: hypocrisy: Wallace[11], Batson[12].
Weeks 7-8: Moral condemnation: DeScioli and Kurzban[13], *DeScioli and Kurzban[14]; Midterm essay
Weeks 9-12: Egoism and altruism: †Hobbes[15], †Mandeville[16], Butler[17], Williams[18], †Smith[19], Nichols[20], Batson and Shaw[21], *Sober and Wilson[22]
Weeks 13-14: Evolution and normativity: *Street[23], Kahane[24]
Week 15: Final essay

Requirements

PHIL 415

Midterm and final essays: There will be two essays.
Participation: Students are encouraged to take part in the discussion at the class. This includes asking meaningful questions, however trivial they might seem. Additionally, students may submit short written comments (ca. 300-500 words) on the text we currently study before the relevant class.
Etiquette: Please make sure to join the class on time.

PHIL 545

Essay: Students will submit an essay of about 4000 words by the end of Week 15.
Discussion pieces: Every Tuesday by 20:00 students will be required to submit a short fragment (ca. 700 words) on one or two issues in the text we are expected to cover on Monday. Students will be required to submit twelve such fragments. The files should be sent to: sandy.berkovski+morpsy@gmail.com
Participation: Students are encouraged to take part in the discussion at the class. This includes asking meaningful questions, however trivial they might seem.
Etiquette: Please make sure to join the class on time.

Grading

PHIL415

Midterm essay		40%
Final essay		40%
Participation		20%

PHIL 545

Essay		50%
Discussion pieces		36%
Participation		14%

Your exam grades will be in the interval [0, 100] and roughly correspond to the Bilkent percentage scale:

Numerical scale (%)		Letter scale
95 - 100		A
90 - 94		A-
86 - 89		B+
82 - 85		B
78 - 81		B-
74 - 77		C+
70 - 73		C
67 - 69		C-
63 - 66		D+
59 - 62		D
00 - 58		F

This scale will also be used for converting final numerical grades to letter grades.

Participation numerical grades: 99, 90, 84, 70, 59, 0.

Discussion pieces grades: 99, 90, 84, 70, 20 (no show), 0 (nonsense).

Please note that the students will be allowed to sit the final exam only if they get a combined grade of at least 59/100 for their midterm exam, quizzes, and participation (that is, when their average grade for these requirements is at least D).

File translated from T_EX by T_TH, version 4.03.