Course Description
Philosophy
120—Intro to Ethics
Michael Taber
St. Mary’s College of Maryland (USA)
The views we have about good and bad play a
decisive role not only in determining our actions, but in determining how we
think of ourselves and others, and how others think of us. Such views are,
therefore, of paramount personal and social importance. But how often do we get
the opportunity to think explicitly and seriously about our moral beliefs and
about what can be said for or against them? This sort of philosophical
examination is what we will undertake this semester.
Philosophical enterprise calls not just for clearly stating your position
on a certain problem, but also for thinking about what support there is
for it in the face of possible objections. That is, to think philosophically is
to think an issue through so that you can explain to others (as well as to
yourself) what strikes you as sensible about having those views as
opposed to having other views. After all, anyone can say that morality
reduces to maximizing happiness or that a woman has a right to an abortion, so
we will be going deeper to discover what support, if any, such claims have. You all have probably thought some about
moral theory and its application to several of the issues we will talk about
this semester, but the point of this course is to provide you with an
opportunity to think more carefully, more philosophically, about these
subjects.
To carry this out, we will be reading what others have said about these
issues, not necessarily for the sake of agreeing with them (although there
certainly will be readings with which you agree), but rather for the sake of
using the readings to get clear on what some of the questions are within each
subject, what is at stake in each subject, and what some examples of carefully
considered positions look like. So we will be using
these readings as crucial springboards for our discussions. And these discussions
will be an important component of the course.
If this were a course the point of which was to test on you such items as
“Was Aristotle Plato’s teacher or was Plato Aristotle’s teacher?” or “What are
the four examples used by Kant to illustrate his categorical imperative?” then
attendance would be less important. One could read carefully on one’s own and
master that kind of content. But the point of studying philosophy goes beyond
factual knowledge (which is not to say that factual
knowledge isn’t important).
Because studying philosophy is the development of a skill and not so much
the memorization of a body of knowledge, students will need to engage
themselves with the readings and with other students’ responses to those
readings. To engage oneself in this sense is not merely to pay attention to the
material, but to be able to discuss, question, explain, support, or criticize.
Hence, the course’s attendance policy….
Course learning
outcomes
At the completion
of PHIL120, students will be able:
1.
to apply views of
ethical theorists to issues of continuing relevance as demonstrated by applying
them to issues relevant to society or to them personally;
2.
to situate how
thinkers about ethics are responding to other such thinkers as demonstrated by
explaining their similarities and divergences from other thinkers;
3.
to construct a
critique of the reasoning used for various arguments in ethics as demonstrated
by being able to object to thinkers' reasoning in support of their positions;
4.
to ground in primary
sources claims about
thinkers in ethics as demonstrated by anchoring their
attributions to thinkers by citing relevant texts;
5.
to demonstrate
effective oral communication of ideas in ethics as demonstrated by contributing
to class discussion or giving class presentation;
6.
to demonstrate
effective written communication of ideas in ethics as demonstrated by writing
well-organized essays.
Land acknowledgment pledge
We acknowledge that the land on
which we are learning, working, and gathering today is the ancestral home of
the Yacocomico and Piscataway Peoples. We also
acknowledge that St. Mary’s City was partly built and sustained by enslaved
people of African descent. Through this acknowledgment, we recognize these
communities and all those who have been displaced and enslaved through
colonization.
The goal of the land
acknowledgment pledge is not only to respect and honor the contributions of
Indigenous Peoples and enslaved people of African descent, but to support and
learn from all diverse communities in order to build a
more sustainable future.
Send me mail: mstaber
at smcm dot edu
Go to the home
page for this course.
Go to Michael
Taber's home page.
Go to the SMCM home page.