SHUM 6633 - Following

(crosslisted) PHIL 6433

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Enrollment limited to: 15 students. Not open to: undergraduates. Co-meets with PHIL 4433/SHUM 4633.

K. Manne.

Since Stanley Milgram’s famous experiments on obedience to authority conducted in the early 1960s, and arguably long before that, it’s been clear that the majority of people are unreliable judges of who to obey, who to follow, and who to treat as moral authority figures. This advanced seminar would begin by considering the nature and bases of a mistaken sense of moral obligation to follow someone’s lead, either because one falsely takes oneself to owe them obedience as such, or because one erroneously treats them as a source of superior moral insight. We will then explore questions about the epistemology and metaphysics of genuine or licit moral authority, which is at least partly a matter of issuing, and not contradicting, independently valid moral requirements.

For longer description and instructor bio please visit http://societyhumanities.as.cornell.edu/courses.