PHILOSOPHY 102: Contemporary Moral Problems
Winter 2014
M-F 11:30-12:20 R304
Item #1912 C
Zoe Aleshire
zoe.aleshire@bellevuecollege.edu
Office B100F
Office
Hours M & W 1pm-2:30pm
Course
Materials
There are no
required texts for this class. All materials will be provided online or as
class handouts. :)
There are
some recommended texts, if you have the means to acquire them, which will be
presented as we go along. I will not expect you to access these texts but they will likely prove enormously
helpful.
Course
Objectives
We will be
looking at both traditional ethical structures of thought and current events to
further our understanding of:
1)What the disciplines of philosophy and
ethics really are,
2)How to form and identify strong
ethical arguments,
3)How ethical decision making happens on
both an individual and societal level,
4)What ethical theories are currently
considered applicable to current events, and why,
5)How philosophy, and ethics in
particular, relate to both academic contexts as well as “outside world”,
6)The intersections of
gender/race/class/belief as they inform arguments about what to do and why,
7)Finally, how to be proactive in the
world in conversation and in action!
Course
Outcomes
• Formulate, clarify and evaluate arguments
• Analyze and assess views that make ethics a matter
of convention.
• Explain and evaluate substantive ethical theories
including utilitarianism and respect for persons and the ethics of care.
• Explain how substantive ethical theories including
utilitarianism, respect for persons and the ethics of care incorporate the
value of cultural diversity.
• Explain the ethical foundations for sustainability.
• Apply substantive ethical theories including
utilitarianism and respect for persons to a range of specific problem areas
like the death penalty, physician assisted suicide, animal rights, poverty,
environmental protection and free speech.
• Write argumentative essays containing clear thesis
claims, strong arguments for the theses, reasonable consideration of opposing
views, and conforming to the presentation/writing standards set forth in the
“BC Philosophy Writing Guidelines.”
Expectations
I expect everyone to be familiar with the days
reading, present both in mind and body (as much as can be managed) and in
possession of whatever materials are required that day. Often, this will mean
no more than your active participation, a small pamphlet and possibly a writing
implement. Please do not text message or make phone calls during class time. If
you have a pending emergency, put your phone on silent and leave the classroom
to respond to it. Answering your phone in class will result in me asking you to
put it on speakerphone (yes, really) so we can all say hi.
Though I won't take attendance every
day, I strongly recommend that you attend class. Since this is a
discussion-based course, failure to come every day will not only seriously harm
your ability to engage with the material, but will likely take a bite out of your
discussion grade. It is your choice to be here, I can't force you (and don't
want to). However, attendance is very strongly encouraged for the best possible
experience and grade.
I will consistently do my best to be
respectful to you as an individual choosing to be here, and I expect the same
from each person in the class. We will be discussing topics or ideas in this
course that may make you or your classmates uncomfortable: this is ok
(actually, discomfort is often a great sign of learning!), but we need to be
careful of each other's boundaries and emotional space. I have attached to this
syllabus some guidelines for respectful class discussion that we will also be
going over in class. I expect each one of you to adhere to these guidelines as
if they are a daily graded assignment. Insults, shaming, intolerance or
general rudeness are more than a breach of etiquette, they create an
environment where some people may not be comfortable expressing their views and
cannot participate. Reasoned disagreement is an integral part of doing
philosophy—silencing one another is not. I will not tolerate it in or outside
the classroom, and do not expect that any of you should either. See the Discussion section for more on this.
Grades
Your grades
will be based on the following percentages, out of 100 points:
Discussion: 20%
Papers: (2x) 25% each
Weekly Responses: (10x) 3% each
Extra Credit: (up to) 6%
I
will only grant a grade of “I” (incomplete) in extreme circumstances preventing
the work from being completed on time, which must be negotiated beforehand. I
will only grant a grade of “HW” (hardship withdrawal) in circumstances of demonstrable
hardship; again, this grade must be negotiated before the final week of the
quarter. To receive either of these grade marks, you must be passing the
class up to that point of negotiation. There will be no exceptions to this.
If you feel that your extenuating circumstances have been neglected by this
rule, please contact W. R. Payne, the chair of the philosophy department.
Discussion
You will be
expected to participate at least 20 times this quarter. When you add
something relevant, on topic, important,
interesting or insightful (preferably
all of these things!), or you ask a question
that fulfills this criteria, I will mark down that you did so and tally them up
for the final grade. I understand that some of you are not comfortable
addressing the entire class. Though I would greatly prefer that you do speak
up, for the benefit of your own education and the classroom environment, I will
also accept posts to the discussion board on Canvas, which will be held to the
same standard as in class participation. Canvas can be an excellent opportunity
to share videos, websites or other materials that would be difficult to present
in class, but in order to receive credit with these types of posts you must
also provide some context.
You cannot
receive extra credit in this section, but you also will not receive credit for
every throwaway comment or “ditto”, so it's a good idea to just participate as
much as you can and not try to game the system.
Discussion will be run according to these basic
guidelines, which we will go over more in depth as needed in class:
Listen respectfully,
without interrupting.
Respect one another's views.
Criticize ideas, not individuals.
Commit to learning, not debating.
Avoid blame and speculation.
Avoid inflammatory
language.
Papers
There will be
two papers, each worth 25% of your grade. I will hand out more specific
instructions for them as we approach the due dates, but here are some general
guidelines:
-Double space, 12 pt font, 1” margins.
-1500-2000 words. Please do not try to
fill space by just writing anything to get to the word count requirement.
Please also do not give me anything much longer than the maximum. I have chosen
your paper topics to fit this length for both your sanity and my own.
-No hard copies. Save the trees! MS
Word .doc/.docx files only. No .*txt or *.rtf will be accepted. Please submit via Canvas only!!
-Please put your name on the essay, and
if you attach a file format the filename like this:
Your last
name, the topic letter you have
chosen, and which assignment, in
that order.
-So, if I were submitting Topic B for
the first essay, my document will be named:
Aleshire-B-1.doc
Failure to properly name
your file could result in it being considered late.
-Late papers will be accepted at -2%
per day late, maximum 5 days (I count weekends!) I will absolutely not accept
late papers after I have finished grading the others. You will have until
midnight of the day papers are due for them to be on time.
No Plagiarized papers will
be given credit
Plagiarizing
means using another's words or ideas and representing them as your own. Always
properly cite your sources, as this can sometimes be done accidentally! It also
means having someone write a paper or part of a paper for you and representing
it as your own work. Bellevue College has a contract with a plagiarism
detecting service and any work suspected of plagiarism will be referred to that
service.
Plagiarism
is grounds for failing the course and possible dismissal from school. I don't
want to know what someone else said about the topics we are covering, anyway: I
want your own thoughts. It's usually more obvious to catch than you'd think.
Don't do it. If you have any questions about how to cite something properly,
ask me or the friendly people at the Writing Center (D204).
Weekly Responses
These are
similar to a reading journal. I will be asking you to turn in 300-500 words
every Friday with your thoughts and reactions to that week's work. These are
not just “throwaway” impressions (“I liked it” is not an adequate response),
but reasoned, cited discussions of what we have covered up to that point. The
responses will ideally be the foundations for your essays, so I will expect
them to have some direction, though I will not be so strict about your thesis
being clear or your grammar being perfect as in the more formal assignments.
A good way to
approach these is to pick one concept that we discussed or read about and
expand on that: what did you think? How did it relate to other things we've
talked about or that you've thought about before? What else could have been
said about this idea that wasn't expressed, in either the reading or the class
discussion?
The responses
will be graded on a 0-3 point system.
3 points:
you express your ideas clearly, demonstrate familiarity with the material (1-2 citations if applicable) and provide
some insight into what you thought or how you reacted to the concepts.
2 points: ideas may be expressed
clearly sometimes, but there may be a lack of familiarity with the material or
there may be less insight than for full credit (an insightful summary would be
2 points).
1 point: Either a summary only,
without insight or analysis, or there is a lack of familiarity with the
readings while still being some attempt at engaging the topic.
No credit
will be given if you show no familiarity with the reading or class discussions.
Extra Credit
You will have
the opportunity to present a creative project to the class in a 6-10 minute
presentation, relating to the ethical theories that we are discussing, for up
to 6% extra credit. You can work with one other person, but you will each need
to have a clear explanation of what you contributed.
!! NO POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS WILL BE
PERMITTED TO PRESENT !!
(unless you are unable for some reason
to bring the project to us, i.e. guerrilla art projects)
And Now, A Few Final Messages:
I will provide trigger warnings in
advance of particularly violent or intense content, but there will be instances
of nudity, sexuality, “strong language” and religious conflict in most (if not
all) of the visual content we will be analyzing in class. I recommend
discussing with me beforehand if you anticipate having problems with this type
of content. I will not excuse you from assignments relating to the content
if you are offended, and will hold your work to the same level as if you
were not offended: thus, “I hated this because it offended me” will never be
sufficient for completion of an assignment. Learning can be about pushing past
your own boundaries: homophobia, body negativity and racial or social bigotry
will never be acceptable in this classroom.
Essential
to a liberal arts education is an open-minded tolerance for ideas and modes of
expression that might conflict with one’s personal values. By being exposed to
such ideas or expressions, students are not expected to endorse or adopt them
but rather to understand that they are part of the free flow of information
upon which higher education depends.
To this
end, you may find that class requirements may include engaging certain
materials, such as books, films, and art work, which may, in whole or in part,
offend you. These materials are equivalent to required texts and are essential
to the course content. If you decline to engage the required material by not
reading, viewing, or performing material you consider offensive, you will still
be required to meet class requirements in order to earn credit.
Bellevue
College is committed to maintaining an environment in which every member of the
campus community feels welcome to participate in the life of the college, free
from harassment and discrimination. We value our different backgrounds at
Bellevue College, and students, faculty, staff members, and administrators are
to treat one another with dignity and respect. http://bellevuecollege.edu/about/goals/inclusion.asp
The
Disability Resource Center serves students with a wide array of learning
challenges and disabilities. If you are a student who has a disability or
learning challenge for which you have documentation or have seen someone for treatment
and if you feel you may need accommodations in order to be successful in
college, please contact us as soon as possible.
If you are a
person who requires assistance in case of an emergency situation, such as a
fire, earthquake, etc, please meet with your individual instructors to develop
a safety plan within the first week of the quarter.
The DRC office is located in the
Library Media Center (D126) or you can call our reception desk at
425.564.2498. Deaf students can reach us
by video phone at 425-440-2025 or by TTY at 425-564-4110. Please visit our website for application
information into our program and other helpful links at www.bellevuecollege.edu/drc
VERY TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE
Week One
What is an
ethical theory?
The Trolley
Problem
Week Two
Utilitarianism
Deontology
Week Three
Deontology
Virtue Ethics
Week Four
Care Ethics
Belief
systems and relativism
(Film: 3
Iron?)
Week Five
Justice
System Midterm Essay Due
Friday
Week Six
Justice
System
Medical Issues
Film: Vera
Drake
Week
Seven
Medical
Issues and Autonomy
Week Eight
The
Environment and The Tragedy of the Commons
Land Ethic
Film: When A
Tree Falls
Week Nine
Sustainability
Issues: environment and people
Ethics in the
“digital age”--copyright, wikileaks, electronic communities
Week Ten
Cyborg Ethics
introduction
Short Films
TBA
Cyborg ethics
and new types of pluralism
Final Paper Due Tuesday of Finals Week