Chapter 4 Further Reading

Essential Primary Sources

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) The founding document of utilitarianism. The hedonic calculus, the principle of utility, and Bentham's arguments for the moral consideration of animals are all here. Bentham is more readable than you'd expect from an eighteenth-century legal theorist. Start with Chapter I and Chapter IV.

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863) The short, readable defense of higher utilitarianism. Only 60 pages. Mill's distinction between quality and quantity of pleasure, his account of justice, and his argument that morality and self-interest ultimately converge are all worth careful attention. Don't miss Chapter 4, where Mill attempts to "prove" the utility principle and invites almost as many objections as he resolves.

Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) The foundational text of deontological ethics. Hard but essential. The two formulations of the categorical imperative are in Section II. Read Christine Korsgaard's preface to the Cambridge edition — it explains what Kant was up to in a way that makes the text much more accessible. If the full text is daunting, start with sections 1–2.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (approx. 350 BCE) Books I, II, VI, and X are the essential chapters for this course. Book I introduces eudaimonia and the function argument. Book II explains the doctrine of the mean and habituation. Book VI is on phronesis (practical wisdom). Book X is on the highest form of the good life. The Irwin translation (Hackett) is accessible; the Ross translation (Oxford) is more literal.

Accessible Secondary Texts

Michael Sandel, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? (2009) Based on Sandel's famous Harvard course. Works through all three frameworks with contemporary examples — railroad workers, organ harvesting, affirmative action, surrogate motherhood. Beautifully written and genuinely engaging. The best single introduction to applied ethics from a philosopher.

Simon Blackburn, Being Good: An Introduction to Ethics (2001) Compact and clear. Blackburn, a distinguished philosopher, covers the terrain with wit and without condescension. The chapter on relativism is especially good. Less than 130 pages.

Peter Singer, Practical Ethics (3rd ed., 2011) Singer applies utilitarian reasoning to famine, animal welfare, abortion, euthanasia, and global poverty. You don't have to agree with his conclusions — many people find them challenging to accept — but his arguments are rigorous and important. This is what it looks like when someone actually takes consequentialism seriously as a guide to action.

Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (1981) A landmark work arguing that modern moral philosophy is fundamentally fragmented — we use moral language from different traditions that no longer have coherent foundations. MacIntyre's diagnosis of moral confusion is invaluable, and his recovery of virtue ethics is the most important philosophical defense of the Aristotelian tradition in the twentieth century. More demanding than the other secondary texts on this list, but worth the effort.

On Moral Psychology and Intuitions

Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012) Haidt argues that moral reasoning is largely post-hoc rationalization of intuitions. The "social intuitionist model" is directly relevant to the trolley problem discussion. Even if you're skeptical of his conclusions (and many philosophers are), the empirical data on how people actually make moral judgments is invaluable.

Joshua Greene, Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them (2013) Greene draws on cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy to argue for a "deep pragmatism" that ends up strongly consequentialist. His account of why the lever and bridge cases feel different — one triggers automatic emotional responses, one triggers deliberative reasoning — is compelling even if his philosophical conclusions are contested.

On Effective Altruism and Applied Consequentialism

Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" (1972) The original drowning child paper. Four pages. Free online. Required reading. You can agree or disagree with its conclusion, but you should understand the argument that has influenced millions of people to take global poverty seriously as a moral issue.

William MacAskill, Doing Good Better (2015) MacAskill is a founder of the effective altruism movement. This book applies consequentialist reasoning to charitable giving with rigor and accessibility. It's a useful companion to thinking seriously about what "doing the most good" actually requires.

Amia Srinivasan, "Stop the Robot Apocalypse" (London Review of Books, 2015) A sharp, philosophically sophisticated critique of effective altruism. Srinivasan argues that EA systematically undervalues structural and political change, overvalues quantifiable interventions, and embodies a problematic politics. Essential reading for anyone thinking carefully about Singer's arguments.

On Kant

Christine Korsgaard, Creating the Kingdom of Ends (1996) The best contemporary philosophical defense of Kantian ethics. More demanding than the secondary texts listed above, but Korsgaard is a superb writer and the essays on the Formula of Humanity are illuminating.

Onora O'Neill, "A Simplified Account of Kant's Ethics" A short, widely anthologized essay that explains the categorical imperative more clearly than most introductory textbooks. Find it in Matters of Life and Death, edited by Tom Regan.

On Virtue Ethics

Julia Annas, Intelligent Virtue (2011) A contemporary defense of Aristotelian virtue ethics that takes seriously the analogy between virtue and skill. Annas argues that virtue is a form of practical expertise, acquired through learning and practice. Accessible and philosophically rigorous.

Philippa Foot, Natural Goodness (2001) A short, beautiful book that defends virtue ethics on naturalistic grounds — what is good for humans is determined by what it means to flourish as the kind of beings we are. Foot is one of the most important moral philosophers of the twentieth century.

The Trolley Problem and Moral Intuitions

Judith Jarvis Thomson, "The Trolley Problem" (1985) The paper that named the problem and established the philosophical literature around it. Thomson makes the deontological case for why the bridge case differs from the lever case. Essential reading.

Frances Kamm, Morality, Mortality (Vol. I, 1993) Kamm takes the trolley problem to extraordinary lengths — generating dozens of variations and attempting to extract principles from them. This is philosophy at its most rigorous and, to some readers, most relentlessly pedantic. But if you want to understand the philosophical literature on when harming some to help others is permissible, this is the reference text.

Podcasts and Talks

Sandel's "Justice" lectures on YouTube — Harvard's open course, which has received tens of millions of views. A great companion to the textbook readings.

"Philosophy Bites" podcast — short interviews with leading philosophers. Episodes on consequentialism (Peter Singer), Kant (Onora O'Neill), and virtue ethics (Rosalind Hursthouse) are directly relevant.

"Hi-Phi Nation" podcast — narrative philosophy podcast. The episodes on trolley problems and moral psychology are excellent.