Virtues, vices, fiends & values – a genealogy of language of morality and ethics

The lecture is an attempt to look at the historical complexity of the language of morality and the relationship of its genealogy to the formation of various ethical concepts.

The lecture is an attempt to look at the historical complexity of the language of morality and the relationship of its genealogy to the formation of various ethical concepts.

The classes will present key points in the genealogy of "stories" about good and evil, focused on central value concepts such as virtue, duty, value.

The theoretical background are the categories of genealogy and narration, borrowed from the concepts of F. Nietzsche (genealogy of morality), A. MacIntyre ("infinitely long history of ethics"), Ch. Taylor (narrative ethics, human being as a self-interpreting animal).

List of topics (due to the genealogical nature of the lecture individual threads may be developed apart the plan):

1. Categories of genealogy and narrative in ethics

2. Metaphors as tools for working on the concepts of morality and ethics: lamus - lapidarium - laboratory

3. The roots of the dictionary of European ethics: ethos, ethics, mores, arete, vice, sin

4. Review of key terms of the main ethical traditions: virtue (character ethics), good (utilitarianism), duty (deontological ethics), person (personalistic ethics), value (axiology)

5. Genealogy of the central ethical concept on the example of laziness (acedia → laziness → melancholy → depression)

6. Interlanguage interference and translational problems (przywara/vice, zgorszenie/scandal, łajdactwo /villainism etc.)

7. Provisional ethics and the concept of 'makeshift' in ethics - a case study (‘prowizorka’)

8. Etymologization (folk etymology) and its meaning for philosophy and ethics

9. Looking for language adequacy - a review of promising terms: moral vertigo, moral panic, moral disengagement. New language trends, youth slang.

10. Summary of the course and preparation for passing.

Atistotle, On virtues and vices (Περὶ Ἀρετῶν καὶ Κακιῶν).

Klibansky Raymond, Panofsky Erwin, Saxl Fritz, Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion and Art.

MacIntyre A., A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the Twentieth Century.

Nietzsche F., On the Genealogy of Morality.

Silbermann Alphonse, Grovelling and Other Vices: the Sociology of Sycophancy, transl. L. Löb, Athlone Press, London 2000.

Theophrastus, On moral characters (Ἠθικοὶ χαρακτῆρες)

Zdrenka M., Morbus etymologicus? Philosophers in the element of etymologisation, “Kultura i Edukacja” Quarterly 2016, No. 2 (112), p. 128–144.

Zdrenka M., The Provisional Moral Code (la morale provisoire) or the Permanent Ethical Stop-gap? Inspiration from Descartes and Montaigne, „Ruch Filozoficzny” 2016, vol. LXXII, No. 4, p. 85–101.

Assessment methods:

- test

- activity

Assessment criteria:

Test in scale 0-30 pts plus additional points achieved for activity during lectures (1 point per 1 lecture)

Final scale:

fail 0-15 pts (50%)

satisfactory 16-18 pts (50-60%)

satisfactory plus 19-20 pts (61-66%)

good 21-23 pts (67-69%)

good plus 24-25 pts (70-83%)

very good 26 pts (>84%)

not applicable