Julia Markovits (Cornell University) gives an introduction to the moral theory of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the view that the right moral action is the one that maximizes happiness for all.
Associate Professor of PhilosophyatCornell University
Markovits joined the Cornell philosophy faculty in 2014, after spending five years on the philosophy faculty at MIT. Before that, she was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. She completed her graduate work in philosophy at Oxford. Her research focuses on ethics. More specifically, she has written about questions concerning the nature of moral reasons and about moral praiseworthiness and blameworthiness. Her first book, Moral Reason, was published by Oxford University Press in 2014. It defends the view that what we have reason to do depends on what we care about, but we all nonetheless have reason to be moral. Markovits teaches courses in meta- and normative ethics, bioethics, and the philosophy of law.
