virtue ethics, deontology, and utilitarianism—which are currently thought of as the “Big Three” in Western moral philosophy. That focus marginalizes some of the most famous thinkers in history, like Lao-tzu, David Hume, and John Locke, all of whose writings overlap with one of these Big Three theories but maybe aren’t integral to them. Also, because I wanted The Good Place to be secular, I shied away from religious thinkers
Limits of the book's scope: Contemporary mainstream Western ethics; not Eastern, not religious, not even specifically feminist ethics. We'll compensate for some of this using supplemental readings available via the course site.
