Seminar Materials
Philosophy 333—Ethical Theories: Altruism & Egoism
Michael Taber
Spring 2026

These are the books we will use, in the order in which we will use them. 

  1. What We Owe the Future, by William MacAskill (Basic Books, 2022), ISBN: 978-1-5416-1862-6
  2. Immanuel Kant’s Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, 3rd edition, translated by James Ellington (Hackett Publishing, 1993), ISBN: 9780872201668
  3. Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness (Signet, 1964), ISBN: 978-0451163936
  4. Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor with Related Chapters from The Brothers Karamazov, translated and edited by Charles Guignon  (1993, Hackett Publishing, ISBN: 978-0872201934  

Some additional readings will be distributed to you as handouts.

Also, there is a Google folder for this course, in which will appear such items as sign-up sheets for Back-up Buddies, tutorials, and some readings.

Some of the readings in the semester schedule (as well as some that I’ll send you throughout the semester) are links to articles in the Washington Post, the New York Times, or The Economist. Believe it or not, each of you already has a subscription to all three, thanks to our library having a site license for all SMCM students, faculty, and staff. (Your tuition $$ at work!)

 

You just need to activate your subscription (free!), using your smcm.edu account. Here are our library’s instructions for each of the three:  the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Economist.

(Don’t try to do it from within any other account than your SMCM.edu account. And be sure that when you go to activate, you don't have an already existing tab open to any of these three websites, as you might if you tried to open a link without first having gone through your activation.)

Send me mail:  mstaber at smcm dot edu

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