Basic Texts and Other Resources for Teaching Core Ethics Courses

The following texts consititute an online library of classical sources for core ethics courses taught in the Department of Phllosophy at Loyola University.  Teachers are encouraged to share ideas about how to use these materials as well as to edit this list of readings. This resource is a work in progress, and is designed primarily for posting selected texts on course web sites (Blackboard). However, all these texts are in the public domain and there is no reason a teacher could not also distribute them in hard copy.

This  web page is for teachers, not stiudents. The actual selection of texts is up to each teacher, with the understanding that every core ethics course will draw on these materials in order to provide a common framework within which specific topics, applications, and philosophical approaches can be presented. (A separate, password protected web page will be constructed if demand exists for sample quizzes, study questions, outlines, and other teaching materials.)

PLATO (After you open each link a text-only version of the work will be availible for download.)
Euthrypho
Apology
Crito
Republic

ARISTOTLE (After you open each link a text-only version of the work will be availible for download.)
Nicomachean Ethics
Politics

AUGUSTINE
Confession

AQUINAS
Summa Theologica
Summa Contra Gentiles

HOBBES
Leviathan

LOCKE
Second Treatise of Civil Government
A Letter Concerning Toleration

HUME
Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

ROUSSEAU
Confessions

KANT
Fundamental Priniples of the Metaphysics of Morals

MILL
Essay On Liberty
Utilitarianism

MARX
The 1844 Manuscripts
Manifesto