$80+
This eight-week introductory seminar offers a guided journey through the key figures and ideas of Western moral and ethical philosophy, designed for both newcomers to philosophy and students with prior background. We begin with the Sophists’ challenge to the possibility of moral truth, move to the classical foundations of ethics in Plato and Aristotle, examine Kant’s deontological framework of duty and autonomy, and Mill’s utilitarian pursuit of the greatest good. We then explore Hegel’s notion of ethical life (Sittlichkeit) as the concrete realization of freedom in society, before turning to Nietzsche’s radical critique of moral values, and concluding with Marx’s account of morality, freedom, and human flourishing rooted in material social relations.
It will span from December 2025 to February 2026 and be taught by Dr. Carlos L. Garrido. In addition to the in-class experience, all students will receive a recording of each class as well as the lecture PowerPoints.
Carlos L. Garrido is a Cuban American philosopher and professor. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Loras College and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is the Director of the Midwestern Marx Institute and currently serves as the Secretary of Education for the American Communist Party.
Garrido is the author of several books, including The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism (2023), Why We Need American Marxism (2024), and Marxism and the Dialectical Materialist Worldview (2022). His forthcoming works include Domenico Losurdo and the Marxist-Leninist Critique of Western Marxism (2026) and Hegel, Marxism, and Dialectics (2026-7). He has written for numerous scholarly journals and popular publications across the world and hosts several live broadcast programs for the Midwestern Marx Institute’s YouTube channel. He also writes the Philosophy in Crisis Substack, which readers can subscribe to HERE.