Introduction to Ethics

PHI 1600

MW 11:00-12:15

CPR 125

Spring 2004

Melinda Rosenberg

Orexis@aol.com

Office Hours: MW 12:30-1:30

FAO 244

 

 

Objective:

This purpose of this course is to introduce the student to basic ethical theories. Everyday we face ethical dilemmas. It is important to identify and apply the many theories which underlie these sometimes thorny dilemmas.

 

Required Text:

Ethical Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings, ed. Louis Pojman, 4th ed. (Wadsworth: Belmont, CA) 2002.

 

Required Assignments:

Midterm exam – 25% of grade

To be given on March 3rd

 

Final Exam – 25% of grade

To be given on April 21st

 

6-7 page term paper – 50% of grade

due no later than April 19th

 

Any papers shorter than 6 pages will receive a failing grade. Do not use a font any larger than 12 point. Use Times New Roman font please. Any attempts to lengthen your paper by using a large font, spacing too many times between paragraphs, or using enormous margins will receive a full letter grade deduction. Don’t bother trying it.

 

Papers must be typed and double spaced.

 

No late papers will be accepted.

 

Absolutely no e-mail submissions whatsoever!! If you cannot make it to class on April 19th, find someone to submit your paper for you, or turn it in earlier. Again, do not e-mail your paper to me.

 

If you wish, you can submit a rough draft. You do not have to.

 

 

Plagiarism Policy:

Plagiarism is academically dishonest and will not be tolerated in this class. If you plagiarize your paper, you will receive an “F” for the course. There is no excuse for plagiarizing. No amount of begging or crying will make me change my mind. Don’t do it. If you are unsure as to whether you have cited something properly, it is your responsibility to come to me and show me what you have written so I can check the paper. Turn your paper in at your own risk otherwise. I have heard nearly every excuse in the book when students are caught. I have no sympathy. You are not entitled to pass the course by using someone else’s work as your own. There is plenty of literature in the library that explains the many ways one can plagiarize. Check it out.

 

Cell Phones:

I have a cell phone, but it is turned off during class. You will do the same. Callers can wait 75 minutes before speaking with you. If not, don’t come to class and chat with them while I am lecturing.

 

Reading Assignments:

Herodotus – Custom is King

Thomas Aquinas – Objectivism

Gilbert Harman – Moral Relativism Defended

Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan

Joel Feinberg – Psychological Egoism

Jeremy Bentham – Classical Hedonism

Friedrich Nietzsche – The Transvaluation of Values

Thomas Nagel – The View From Nowhere

John Stuart Mill – Utilitarianism

Bernard Williams – Against Utilitarianism

Robert Nozick – Side Constraints

Peter Singer – Famine, Affluence, and Morality

Immanuel Kant – The Foundation for the Metaphysics of Morals

W.D. Ross – What Makes Right Acts Right?

Onora O’Neill – Kantian Formula of the End in Itself and World Hunger

Thomas Nagel – Moral Luck

Phillippa Foot – Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect

Aristotle – The Ethics of Virtue

William Frankena – A Critique of Virtue-Based Ethics

David Hume – On Reason and the Emotions

G.E. Moore – Non-Naturalism

A.J. Ayer – Emotivism

J.L. Mackie – The Subjectivity of Values

Gilbert Harman – Moral Nihilism

Bernard Williams – Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy

Plato – Why Be Moral?

David Gauthier – Morality and Advantage

Bernard Williams – Persons, Character, and Morality

Immanuel Kant – God and Immortality as Necessary Postulates of Morality

Kai Nielsen – Ethics Without God

E.O. Wilson – Sociobiology and Ethics

J.L. Mackie – Law of the Jungle

Carol Gilligan – In a Different Voice

Michael Levin – Is there a Female Morality

 

This list is tentative and subject to change.