This course takes a twofold approach to the topic of ethics.
In the first part, we examine major thinkers from the Axial Age of man, a period of spiritual and philosophical awakening that occurred simultaneously in ancient China, India, Persia, Greece, and Israel. We also cover the development of ethics thought in the Western tradition, focusing on such major philosophers as David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and others.
In the second part, Professor Kane points to the loss of shared values that comes with an increasingly pluralistic society as one of the major problems facing ethics philosophy today. Is there an objective truth about ethics? Can vastly different cultures agree on a common ground in ethics?