Course Description

01 (J. Piven) Ethics is the attempt to understand moral concepts and justify moral principles. What should I do? How do I determine what’s right and wrong? Is moral good in the intention or the consequence of my actions? Everyone disagrees on what people should do. Is it all personal opinion? Cultural values? Is it all relative? Should I question what I’ve been told? In this course we’ll survey readings in ethics and moral philosophy to understand different perspectives on how moral decisions can be made. We’ll investigate such topics as virtue ethics, deontology, constructivism, objectivism, relativism, consequentialism, free will, and determinism.

02 (A. Saemi) Exploration of basic issues in ethical theory and metaethics. Topics may include consequentialism, deontology, virtue theory, constructivism, value relativism, the objectivity of values, value skepticism, free will, and the nature of the values and practical reasons.

03 (R. Fry) The field of ethics asks us to consider what we ought to do and how we know. In this course, we will use a number of different applied ethical problems to jump-start our thinking about what ethical principles and positions matter in the world around us. We’ll then go on to examine systems of ethics that purport to tell us what’s right and wrong, good and bad, and why. You will be assessed primarily through written papers. No antecedent familiarity with philosophy is required or expected.

91 (S. Kang) This course aims at helping students to think about the moral dimensions of human existence by exposing them to (1) theoretical and (2) practical issues in ethics. Some of the questions we will ask are: how should we conduct our lives? how can we be morally righteous and virtuous?; what kinds of ethical theories are there to help us make right decisions? What if there are conflicting moral recommendations from different theories?; how are we to resolve differences of moral opinions?; what is the distinctive nature of moral judgment?; why should I be moral in the first place?; to what degree does religion play a role in ethical decisions?; how is ethics related to the diverse areas such as law, health care, or politics as practiced in today's society?, and so forth. (There is no prerequisite to this course, except a curious and rigorous mind.)