Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature
An interdisciplinary ethics course taught by Tamar Szabo Gendler, chair of Yale's philosophy department, blending philosophy with psychology, behavioral economics, and literature. Organized around three themes, happiness and flourishing, morality, and political philosophy, the 26 lectures work through virtue and habit, weakness of will and procrastination, utilitarianism and its critics, and deontology, testing classical arguments against findings from modern behavioral science. Requirements include ten short directed exercises, two roughly 1000-word essays, and a final exam with questions distributed in advance. Full lecture video, audio, and transcripts are free through Open Yale Courses. It works well as ethics with an empirical edge rather than pure textual history of philosophy.