Human freedom comes in many different forms: economic freedom, educational freedom, political freedom, and cultural freedom, to name just a few. Since actions can conflict with the freedom and well-being of others, people need to come to agreements about how to behave toward one another. Searching for those agreements through reason and dialog is called ethical discourse. A democratic society tries to discover right and wrong actions by allowing everyone an equal opportunity to discuss the matter. The idea is that the closer to total agreement a society comes, the more likely it is that they are right about the goodness and badness of their actions. After all, why would a great majority of people choose to agree to practices that would cause themselves harm? Only by deceit, ignorance, violence, greed or desperation would a society commit itself to actions that are hostile to its own freedom and well-being. A democratic society depends upon its members' abilities to practice ethical discourse. This course aims to give you the knowledge and understanding to meet that challenge.

Moral Reasoning
This unit introduces the practice of moral reasoning through an engagement with moral skepticism. Because moral skepticism denies the existence of an objective basis for good and bad actions, it is important to deal with its arguments directly.