PHL 1042 Ethics
Summer II, 2003
Dr Christian Perring
Required Book: Twenty Questions, 4th edition (Wadsworth, 2000)
· Attendance and participation: 5%
· Each student must write 8 one-page reflection pieces (300 words or more) on how one of the readings is relevant to his or her life. The more concrete and particular your reflection, the better. You should identify in what ways the issues you are writing about are philosophical, and how the readings are relevant to them. These pieces will be graded with an A, B, C or F. You should do two of these each week. They should discuss a particular issue you have faced or are facing and discuss how the reading provides a helpful insight into how to understand your own life or how you should act. (You can refer to the same issue or experience in more than one piece.) Worth a total of 20% of total grade.
· At the start of each class, I want each student to identify 2 words or expressions from the reading that he or she would like explained.
· There will be 3 papers: 2 pages, 3 pages, and 4 pages. (~300 words per page). Due on the Mondays. (10%, 15%, 20%). All papers must be submitted in electronic form, preferably through turnitin.com, or as email attachments.
· There will be 2 short tests each week on the readings. Questions will be multiple choice, true/false and short answer. These will be worth 5% each, making a total of 30% Your test grade will be based on your 6 best grades.
My office phone: 244-3349
Email address: perringc@dowling.edu (put PHL1042 in the Subject line)
Office hours: 4.30-5.30 PM, M-R.
Note: readings marked with ** are available through Blackboard: log on at http://webclasses.dowling.edu
Week 1.
Day 1. Introduction
Day 2. Chapter
15
Aristotle: Happiness and the Good Life
Immanuel Kant: Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals
John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism
Day 3. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Natural History of Morals
Simone de Beauvoir: Freedom and Morality
Jonathon Bennett: The Conscience of Huck Finn
Bob Kane: Through the Moral Maze
Test 1
Day 4. Chapter 19
Thomas Hobbes: Justice and the Social Contract
John Rawls: Justice as Fairness
Robert Nozick: The Principle of Fairness
Joel Feinberg: Economic Income and Social Justice
Test 2
Week 2.
Day 5. Amartya Sen: Property and Hunger
Malcolm X: Human Rights, Civil Rights
Cheshire Calhoun: Justice, Care and Gender Bias
Nancy Bauer: Beauvoir’s First Philosophy, The Second Sex, and the Third Wave **
Day 6. Robert Wright: Feminists, Meet Mr. Darwin **
Natalie Angier: Monogamy vs. Promiscuity: Putting Evolutionary Psychology on the Couch **
Tiya Miles: On the Rag **
Sarah McCarry: Selling Out **
Test 3
Day 7. Chapter
10
Dena S. Davis: Stem Cells, Cloning, and Abortion **
President's Council on Bioethics: The Moral Status of the Embryo **
Daniel Callahan The Puzzle of Profound Respect: Human Embryo Research **
Mary B. Mahowald and Anthony P. Mahowald: Embryonic Stem Cell Retrieval and a Possible Ethical Bypass **
Day 8. Chapter
18
Aristotle: Voluntary and Involuntary Action
Baron d'Holbach: Are We Cogs in the Universe?
John Hospers: Meaning and Free Will
Jean-Paul Sartre: Freedom and Responsibility
Test 4
Week 3.
Day 9. B.F. Skinner: Freedom and the Control of Men
Bernard Williams: Moral Luck
Jean Grimshaw: Autonomy and Identity in Feminist Thinking
Iris Young: Oppression
Day 10. Chapter 17
Aristotle: The Nature of Tragedy
David Hume: Of the Standard Of Taste
Leo Tolstoy: What Is Art?
The Hayes Commission Motion Picture Production Code: The Motion Picture Production Code
Test 5
Day 11. Theodore Adorno: The Culture Industry
Arthur Danto: The Artworld **
Kathleen Higgins: Beauty, Kitsch, and Glamour
Paul Mattick Jr.: Who Should Support the Arts?
Day 12. Chapter 13
Epicurus: The Pursuit of Pleasure
Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene
Stephen Jay Gould: So Cleverly Kind an Animal
Tara Smith: Individual Rights, Welfare Rights
Test 6
Week 4
Day 13. Chapter 1
Ramakrishna: Many Paths to the Same Summit
Lao Tzu: A Taoist View of the Universe **
Janheinz Jahn: God and Gods in Africa **
Rosemary Radford Ruether: The Image of God's Goodness **
Day 14. bell hooks: Love as the Practice of Freedom
H. L Mencken: Memorial Service
Albert Camus: The Absurd
Charles Henderson: The Internet as Metaphor for God **
Test 7
Day 15. Chapter 20
Confucius: On Business
Adam Smith: Benefits of the Profit Motive
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: The Immorality of Capitalism
William Greider: Crime in the Suites **
Day 16. Joanne Ciulla: Honest Work
Patricia H. Werhane: A Bill of Rights for Employees and Employers
Robert C. Solomon: Making Money and the Importance of the Virtues
Joseph Campbell: Follow Your Bliss
Test 8