Course Objectives

To introduce students to a variety of theories and arguments about the nature of ethical thinking and moral judgment

To provide students with an opportunity to reflect on what it means to lead an ethical life

To learn and practice skills and methods that may be helpful in thinking about ethical problems.

To introduce students to some critiques of traditional ethical theories -- critiques that raise questions about the role of race, class and gender in ethical thinking and critiques that challenge the assumption that general theories are what we want from moral philosophy.

Course Materials

The following books are (or will be) available at the bookstore: Plato, Republic; Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics; Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals; John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism; Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality; Richard Norman, The Moral Philosophers . Other course readings will be photocopied. They will be handed out in class at least a week before they are to be discussed. Please bring the text to be discussed to class with you every time.

Class website: I maintain a simple website where I post course handouts and information. The URL is http://www.users.qwest.net/~ac15/

Course Description

This course will raise and consider several different kinds of ethical questions:

First, some questions about ethics: Is there such a thing as truth in ethics? Or is it all just 'a matter of opinion'? Can ethical questions be answered through rational inquiry? Or must they be approached in some other way (through religious faith or feeling or intuition)? Is it important to have ethical principles and to stick to them no matter what? How can we know if an ethical principle is correct? (Is there really any such thing as a correct ethical principle, or is it just a matter of deciding which principles I am 'comfortable' with?) Can rational inquiry in ethics lead to the development of an ethical theory that explains or justifies our ethical judgments, perhaps by showing us how they can be derived from some more basic ethical principle? (We will study several attempts to develop such a theory.) Are the ethical theories developed in the 'Western' philosophical tradition really as universal and objective as they pretend to be, or do they express the particular interests and limited points of view of the people who constructed them? (We will approach this question primarily by studying a feminist perspective according to which traditional ethical theories and discussions express a distinctively male perspective.)

Second, we'll examine what we might call ethical issues: Do we have a duty to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves and, if so, to what extent? Is it immoral for two people of the same gender to have sex with one another? When, if ever, is it morally acceptable to have an abortion or to end an ill or injured person's life? And so on. Most of us have opinions about questions like these and most of us have had at least some opportunity to think about them and discuss them. Here, we will try to see if the 'professional thinkers' have anything to offer us that can help to settle these contentious issues, and we will explore how they are approached from a variety of moral perspectives. In this process, we'll try to sharpen the skills we need to think carefully about these issues for ourselves.

I cannot promise we will answer any of these questions to your satisfaction. They are, for the most part, very difficult questions. What we can hope to do is to learn something about how various historical and contemporary thinkers have answered them, and to become somewhat more careful and critical in our own efforts to answer them.

Conduct of the Course

Class time will be devoted largely to discussion, some in small groups, some all together. I will occasionally lecture, more often I will answer questions as they come up in discussion, and even more often I will try to help you figure out how to answer your questions yourself.

Much of our discussion will focus on understanding and evaluating the texts. This will work well only if you have done the assigned reading carefully -- often twice or three times -- and given it some thought. In philosophy we are interested not in the information that can be extracted from a text, nor simply in the conclusions or opinions that an author expresses; we are primarily interested in understanding and assessing the reasoning that an author uses to try to establish or support those conclusions. This requires a very careful sort of reading.

The point of struggling with these difficult texts is not only to understand what some great minds have produced. A guided tour through the Museum of Great Ideas is a very good thing, but not the best thing that philosophy has to offer. Better is the opportunity to learn to think for yourself. The texts can serve as models of careful and/or creative thinking, as challenges to our prejudices and assumptions, and as starting points for our own reflections. But the only way to learn to philosophize is to enter the conversation yourself. In this way a course in philosophy is more like a course in drawing or sculpture -- a studio art course -- than like a course in art history or art appreciation. You can’t learn to draw by just watching other people draw, and you can’t learn to do philosophy by just listening and reading. You have to express your views and expose them to other people’s critical reactions.

Assignments and Grading

Reading assignments

I expect you to find time (an hour or two) to do the reading for each class and to come prepared to discuss it. Come to class ready to say what you found interesting, what you found confusing, silly, or just plain wrong, what seemed to you to be the most important claims made, and what arguments or justifications were offered for those claims.

Reading response papers

20 % of your grade will be earned by submitting brief (1/4-1/2 of a double-spaced, typed page, perhaps just a few sentences) responses to the readings for each class. These must be turned in at the beginning of the class period to be counted. They can contain questions, objections, observations and/or reactions to the reading for that class. I will not grade these, but I will reject any that do not seem to be based on a reasonably conscientious reading of the assignment for that day. You can miss a few of these and still earn an ‘A’ for this part of the course work, but missing more than a few will be penalized on the following schedule: 90% completed = A; 80% = B; 70% = C; 60% = D; less than 60% = F. I will also notice and reward particularly perceptive or thoughtful response papers.

Class discussion

Most weeks we will have guided small group discussion projects. The purpose of these projects is to open discussion and to focus it on particular issues. They are also intended to be "mini-labs" in which to practice the skills of careful reading and evaluation of reasoning. The projects are done in class in groups of 3-5 and take roughly 20-45 minutes to complete. Each group should keep notes on its discussion, sign the notes and hand them in at the end of each class session. Often groups will also report orally on their discussions.

If you miss a discussion project, you should get hold of the instructions, write out responses to the questions on your own, and hand them in as soon as you can. 10% of your grade will be determined by the number of discussion projects you complete satisfactorily (on the same schedule as the response papers above.)

10% of your grade will also be determined by my evaluation of the quality of your participation in class discussions. Just showing up and paying attention earns a C for this component; occasionally making helpful contributions earns a B; regularly making helpful contributions earns an A. Helpful contributions include: asking pertinent questions, answering questions asked by the instructor or by other students, expressing your views about the texts or topics we are discussing, responding (relevantly and respectfully) to the views expressed by others.

Essays

You will be asked to write two short (3-5 page) essays during the semester. Each paper will count for 15% of your grade. Please keep copies of all the work you hand in.

Exams

We will have two one-hour, in-class exams -- one at mid-semester, one during the scheduled final exam period. Each exam will count for 15% of your grade.

I try hard to base my evaluation of your work on your understanding of the reading, the quality of your reasoning and questioning, and the clarity and effectiveness of your expression of your thoughts, not on whether or not I agree with your philosophical theories, ideas, or opinions.