Course Syllabus
Philosophy 102
Contemporary Moral
Problems
Spring Quarter 2011
Course
Description: Ethics,
along with Aesthetics, comprises Value Theory – one of the three major areas of
study in modern analytic philosophy (the others being Epistemology and
Metaphysics). Ethics divides further into three branches: Meta-Ethics,
Normative Ethics, and Applied Ethics. While all areas of ethics are generally
concerned with the normative questions of how to act and what is good, the
three branches explore separate levels to those queries. At the bottom (and
least abstract) is Applied Ethics which focuses on the acts themselves –
evaluating what is appropriate and not
appropriate to do, either as an individual (whether it is moral for a
mother to get an abortion for example) or as a society (should we make it legal
for people to be able to get abortions). Normative Ethics deals with the
justifying principles behind our ethical judgments – the different answers we
give to the question: what is ethically
significant? To continue our example, Normative Ethics would ask if getting
an abortion is wrong, what is it that makes it wrong? Furthest up the ladder is
Meta-Ethics which seeks to understand what we mean when we make ethical
judgments (semantics) and what the relationship is between ethics and the world
(metaphysics). Meta-Ethics would ask the question, what is happening when someone judges that getting an abortion is
wrong? This course will make its way through all three areas, addressing some
of the most significant contributions to each. Taken together, Ethics studies
one of the more peculiar aspects that arises in our experience of the world:
that things can have meaning and value and also that we are the kinds of beings
who are explicitly sensitive to such dimensions.
Instructor: Tim Linnemann
tim.linnemann@bellevuecollege.edu
Division
Office: 425-564-2341
Text: All
readings will be available electronically. I will be emailing attachments with
the reading selections which you can then print at your discretion.
Objectives &
Outcomes: This
class aims to accomplish two things. First, to familiarize you with some of the
most prominent ethical thinkers (those contemporary and the classical moral
philosophers they build upon), their ideas, and the tensions those ideas exert
on each other. Second, this class attempts to develop your ability to navigate
and discuss ethical questions, quagmires, and conflicts. Thus, class time will
be split between discussion and lecture, with most days involving both. Attendance
and participation in discussion are important aspects to this class and will be
incorporated into your final grade. A short journal entry on the material also
will be expected on Mondays at the start of class. In addition, there will be
three short essay take-home tests to conclude each of the three sections of the
course material.
Grading: Attendance/Participation 20%
Journal
Entries 25%
Short
Essay Tests (3) 55% (28% apiece)
Journal
Entries: Each week you will be
asked to write a short 1-2 page response on the topic being discussed during
class that week. The journals are intended to be a forum for you to explore
your ideas regarding the issues under consideration and have some practice in
articulating them in an argumentative style. These are informal and will be
graded only on a simple plus/check/minus system. Journals are due at the start
of class on Mondays. The journals and class discussion go hand-in-hand and I
will be trying to cater discussions to the interests I see students expressing.
I am willing to comment on journal entries if students are interested –
however, I will refrain unless requested to do so. If you would like feedback,
just make a note at the top of the journal and I’ll be happy to share my
thoughts.
Short
Essay Tests: As we complete each section of the course
there will be a short take home test assigned on the material we covered in
that section. Most of the essay questions will involve presenting, in your own
words, the contributions of one of the philosophers we have read, or comparing
and contrasting a couple of them. I will always include at least one question
that will require you to take a position in response to a claim made in the
reading and support that position with arguments. However, these tests are
primarily focused on evaluating your ability to demonstrate understanding of
the material. I prefer tests to be turned in to me electronically via email.
Class
Participation: I am making
participation part of your final grade to emphasize the importance of
philosophic engagement in its social dimension. Many of the issues in ethics
are not just about the relationship between an individual and their conception
of the good but are also of a broadly social concern. Whether this is expressed
in federal or state laws or the codes of social conduct in our communities, the
implications of the way we think about ethics and morality can have
consequences for many people, and the way in which we justify these practices
as much concerns each other as ourselves. I will be striving to create a
classroom atmosphere where these debates can be pursued productively and
comfortably, but I will need your help in realizing this project. Three things
will be of particular advantage: mutual respect as a standard for discussion,
careful listening, and critical engagement.
For our purposes,
respect must not be a conclusion, but rather a premise. Disrespectful
engagement is unprofessional and unphilosophical
regardless of whether it is offensive. As an example, to consider a certain
line of thinking is indicative of a lack of intelligence does nothing to
provide a reasonable argument for why we should consider such reasoning
philosophically problematic. The disrespectful attitude does nothing to add to
the debate (whatever else it does
contribute).
Careful
listening and critical engagement are very closely connected. To properly
respond to an idea, one must first understand it as thoroughly as possible. But
just understanding the point of someone’s idea is also not enough – we must
analyze its virtues and deficiencies. Our discussions will always be oriented
toward gauging the strength of proposed resolutions to ethical conundrums, and
in as much as we will contribute ideas of our own, we will be assessing how
well our attempts fare as well. When engaging in this way with one another an
open audience is as crucial as a critically invested audience – respect helps
prepare us for both.
Topics and
Reading Assignments
|
1 |
Introduction to the Course:
What does Ethics concern?
A Little Bit of Logic |
Epectitus, A Manual for Living |
|
2 |
NORMATIVE
ETHICS Consequentialism and Utilitarianism |
John Stuart
Mill, Utilitarianism |
|
3 |
Kantian Deontology and the Categorical
Imperative |
Immanuel Kant, Grounding for a Metaphysics of Morals |
|
4 |
Virtue Ethics Essay
Test #1 assigned |
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Books I, II, and X) |
|
5 |
Buddhism Essay
Test #1 due |
Dhammapada |
|
6 |
APPLIED
ETHICS Abortion |
Judith Jarvis Thomson, “A Defense of
Abortion” Don Marquis “Why Abortion Is Immoral” |
|
7 |
Competence and Surrogate Decision Making Essay
Test #2 assigned |
Allen Buchanan and Dan Brock, “Standards of
Competence” Dan Brock, “Surrogate Decision Making for
Incompetent Adults: An Ethical
Framework” |
|
8 |
META-ETHICS Classical Reflections on the Nature of
Morality and Our Relation To It Essay
Test #2 due |
Plato, Euthyphro Plato, Republic
(selections from Book II) |
|
9 |
Internal and External Reasons |
Thomas Nagel, “Moral Luck” |
|
10 |
Moral Realism Essay
Test #3 assigned |
Russ Shafer-Landau, Moral Realism (selections) |
|
11 |
Essay
Test #3 due |
|