Moral Problems and the Good Life
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this philosophy course built around contested public issues: euthanasia, gay marriage, racial profiling, free speech, and global hunger. Rather than teaching a single position, the syllabus works through the competing moral frameworks (consequentialist, deontological, rights-based) that underlie each debate, asking students to identify what is actually in dispute before judging who is right. Materials include readings drawn from philosophers and public commentators on both sides of each issue, discussion questions, and writing assignments that require students to reconstruct an opposing argument fairly before responding to it. The course does not push euthanasia or same-sex marriage as causes; it uses them as test cases for applied ethical reasoning. No video lectures are included, but the full reading list and assignment sequence are available for self-study. There is no certificate and no cost to access the materials.