180002 EV-L STEOP: Practical Philosophy (2016S)

Practical philosophy is (as the name indicates) concerned with action. Accordingly, a good start will be to discuss the concept of human action. Actions differ from other events. They do not only have causes, they also have reasons. As motives, reasons may themselves have some sort of psychological causes, but with reasons a normative dimension comes into play. Other than mere events, it’s unavoidable to characterize actions in an evaluative matter, that is, we value them. Other events take place or they don’t. Actions, however, should be performed, not performed, or carried out differently. When talking about action, we are also talking about right or wrong; actions are rational or irrational, morally permissible or not, just or unjust. Hence, human action is situated in various normative domains such as rationality, morality as well as politics. It involves our desires just as much as our moral principles and, ultimately, the political constitution we ascribe to ourselves as community. In this introductory lecture, we will start out from philosophy of action, and on the basis of it, address the central issues concerning ethics and political philosophy. The readings consist of both classical texts in philosophy and contemporary philosophical research.