Office: Peabody Hall room 24 Office Hours: by appointment
General Course Description:
PHIL 2030 - Introduction to Ethics
Summer 2015
Phil 2030 is a course on the major philosophical positions concerning right and wrong, ethical values, and moral responsibility. The relevance of moral philosophy to current social issues will be discussed.
Course Objective:
The readings of this course were carefully chosen to give you the opportunity to learn about the classical philosophical perspectives on ethics and morality such as virtue ethics, deontology and utilitarianism. The course will be centered around practical problems concerning individual and collective identity. We will learn about how one’s personal identity play a role in shaping a society and how the expression of one’s identity depend upon the establishment of a community, a just state and system of laws.
We will be discussing the moral implications of certain conceptions of race, color and gender to contemporary political matters such as affirmative actions, economic and reparative justice, gender rights, immigration politics, post-colonialism, animal rights, ecology and others.
To help understand these sensitive issues, we will read articles, book chapters and watch a few videos. This material is going to serve as a stimulus to make us ask ourselves whether the current morality and system of laws is adequate to the best expression of the individual and collective identity.
In this course you will learn tools for developing your ability to understand ethical theories and evaluate ethical problems. In this course we will be dealing with the most pressing ethical issues that are on the daily agenda of contemporary society. The course will provide you with the opportunity to reflect upon your own ethical assumptions and turn them into objective claims that can be rationally justified. You will be challenged and we will question one another’s ethical beliefs. The readings, the written assignments and the classroom discussions have the same objective of improving our understanding and practice of justice, equity as well as the promotion of the collective good and our personal happiness.
The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; derivations will be announced to the class by the instructor either in class or through ELC. Students are responsible for following schedule updates.
University of Georgia Philosophy Department
Expected learning outcomes:
• understand and explain major ethical problems and theories
• identify the proper difficulties of each ethical problem
• apply methodological strategies to deal with ethical and moral questions
• develop one’s ability to evaluate moral actions according to different criteria
• value rational justification towards subjective and objective claims
• exercise critical ability and explore new ways of thinking through discussion and writing • sensitize oneself to pressing and delicate ethical issues
• respect those with different points of views and challenge your own
Required texts:
Course Requirements:
This is a reading intensive course. You should come prepared to discuss the text in class, although in some days we will do in-class readings. You will have to read a broad range of texts, from classical material to contemporary articles. Some materials will be easier than others, but all of them serve the purpose of training your complex reading skills and developing you abilities to interpret philosophical texts. In this course you will be also required to participate in class discussions and give both an individual and a group presentation. In some occasions we will watch movies. There will be one midterm and a final exam.
Reflexive Writing: Daily reflections. we have 15 days of class, you should turn in 5 reflective pieces in themes of your choice. Further instructions will be given on the first day of class. This assignment will allow you to exercise your thinking through writing.
Individual presentation: You will be expected to give an individual presentation in which you will explain and elaborate on an argument in one of the assigned reading.s
Group presentations: You will be expected to give a group presentation on a particular topic on applied ethics.
Exams: There will be a midterm and a final, both of them are in-class.
Attendance and make-up policies will be addressed in the first day of class.
Assignments:
Reflexive writing: 5 pieces - 20% Individual presentation: 15% Group presentation: 15%
The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; derivations will be announced to the class by the instructor either in class or through ELC. Students are responsible for following schedule updates.
University of Georgia Philosophy Department
In class Exam: 20% Final Exam: 30%
Grading scale: Course Calendar:
Reading schedule TBA
05/12 - Introduction / Moral arguments 05/13 - Virtue Ethics
05/14 - Virtue Ethics
05/15 - Virtue Ethics
05/18 - Deontology
05/19 - Deontology
05/20 - Utilitarianism / Free Speech and Censorship 05/21 - Utilitarianism / Affirmative actions
05/22 - Midterm exam
05/25 - Race and racism
05/26 - Economic justice
05/27 - Gender and Body
05/28 - Immigration and National Identity
05/29 - Nature and the Environment
06/01 - Animal rights
06/02 - Good-life and well-being
06/03 - In-class Final Exam
Academic Honesty:
All academic work must meet the standards contained in “A Culture of Honesty”. Each student is responsible to inform themselves about those standards before performing any academic work.
The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; derivations will be announced to the class by the instructor either in class or through ELC. Students are responsible for following schedule updates.
