The Good Class: The Ethics and Politics of “The Good Place”

 This course will introduce students to some of the major texts and debates in moral philosophy. We will do so by reading some of those texts and by bringing them into conversation with the contemporary sit-com, “The Good Place.” This show explicitly explores major questions in moral philosophy and political theory, so part of our goal will be to explore its allusions and references. However, we will also utilize the show’s scenarios to think through the advantages and limits of moral philosophy as a mode of inquiry. Our topics will include the canonical approaches to moral theory (virtue ethics, deontology, consequentialism, and contractarianism), existentialism, and also why (or whether) it might be necessary to move beyond moral questions and into more explicitly political ones.