Philosophy 160
Introduction to Ethics
 

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Optional Text: Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues

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Course Description

Whether explicitly or implicitly most of us believe we live in accordance, more or less, with certain general norms (rules or guides) for behavior.  Likewise, most of us appear to live our lives in the ways one might expect if we did adhere to some norms in our behavior.  We generally don't kill people, steal, torture, or rape.  We pay our taxes, drive somewhere close to the speed limit, and don't scream "fire" in crowded theaters.  Of course, some of these norms prescribe mere conventions for behavior--signal before turning when driving--while others prescribe moral (correct, appropriate, praiseworthy) conduct--assist motorists who are stranded in blizzards--and prohibit immoral (incorrect, inappropriate, blameworthy) conduct--don't drive drunk.  We also regularly make judgments such as, "He's wrong to lie like that," and generally acknowledge that these judgments stem from principles of some kind (or ought to). 

Society often formulates explicit, comprehensive, and systematic behavioral conventions in the form of laws and regulations in order to facilitate a reasonably well-ordered society.  While these conventions have a certain regulatory or cost/benefit justification, most lack the significance of ethical norms as well as any pretension to universality or necessity which one often associates with ethical norms.  For instance, whether the speed limit is 55mph or 65mph warrants (ideally) carefully considered legislation, but one can always see how society might have gone the other way--why not 57mph?  Ethical norms seem quite different; whether society allows slavery, torture, the harvesting of organs from the poor, or indefinite imprisonment without trial do not seem like issues about which society could just as easily have gone another way.  Few people will go to war over the speed limit, but people have gone to war (at least, justified wars) over slavery, and right to a fair and speedy trial.  Likewise, people often have a sense that ethical norms are not the sorts of things other people can--or have the right to--decide for us.  For instance, many people object to strict abortion laws because they believe that individuals must make such decisions in accordance with their own beliefs and conscience.  However, despite the seeming importance and personal nature of ethical norms, few of us have ever taken the time to make our ethical convictions fully manifest and examine these convictions in order to formulate an explicit, comprehensive, and systematic set of principles for ethical behavior.  

Ethics is the specialty within Philosophy that seeks to understand, evaluate, systematize, and provide justification for such ethical norms based upon answers to four perennial questions; (1) Are there universal normative ethical principles that both prescribe behavior and inform our moral judgments? (2) Why/How/Should such principles constrain our actions? (3) How might we come to know these ethical principles (if they exist)? (4) What, specifically, are those ethical principles? This class looks at important answers to these philosophic questions as given by historical and contemporary thinkers from Philosophy and Psychology. It also examines the background assumptions and methodology behind the views of these thinkers and of contemporary philosophy in general. Finally, it examines the impact--both for individuals and for society--of various theoretical positions on the prohibition or acceptability of various real world actions and choices.

Students who conscientiously apply themselves to the class can expect to benefit in many ways, including--but not limited to--the following; a better understanding of their own ethical views, gaining an appreciation of both the intellectual merits and deficits of their views,  a sense of the place of their views and the views of others in the context of the development of ethical theories within western society, a sense of the impact--upon themselves and upon others--of their ethical views in relation to a number of contemporary, real-world issues, an increased sophistication of their ethical views, and an increased ability to reason and argue effectively and responsibly about ethics and morality.

Readings and Other Assignments

Meeting 1 General Introduction to Course/Religion and Morality

Meeting 2 Religion and Morality

Meeting 3 Egoism and Relativism

Meeting 4 Moral Psychology

Meeting 5 Natural Law/Contractarism

Meeting 6 Deontological Theories: Rawls

Meeting 7 Utilitarianism

Meeting 8Virtue Theory

	Readings: Rachels (693-703) , Artistotle (130-184)
	Doings:

Meeting 9  Moral Psychology

Meeting 10 Torture

Readings: Danner , Klein, ABC on CIA, Dershowitz, Scarry , 2007 debate question Optional Resources: recommended   Reports on Practices: Secret Authorization of Torture at Justice Department Britt Hume's Torture Question Video (Clip #7), Interrogation Methods Are Criticized (5/29/2007),  Washington Post Article on the School of the Americas, FBI Blamed for Abuse of Military Commissions Act,  U.S. Attorney General's Record (includes links to memos authorizing torture and calling the Geneva convention quaint), Army report on al-Qaida accuses Rumsfeld, AP 108 deaths in US custody, ACLU on the Military Commissions Act, Economist Article, NY Times Article, 2nd New York Times Article, No Link Between Hussein and bin Laden, Severe Tactics, Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat,14 Held in Secret, Human Rights Watch   9-11 Report and Executive Summary:   Executive Summary (pdf), Full Report, Full Report (pdf)   Laws Prohibiting Torture: Geneva Convention III, Convention Against Torture, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The McCain Amendment,   U.S. Laws Passed Since 9-11: The Patriot Act, The McCain Ammendment, The Military Commissions Act (pdf)   Torture Manuals Written and Used by the U.S.: U.S. Training Manuals used at the School of the Americas, KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual

Doings: Extra Credit Exercise Information Awareness

Meeting 11 option 1 Abortion

Meeting 11 option 2  Race, Gender, and Civil Rights

Final
Friday, January 21st Last Day of Class 

Course Requirements

Grades will be determined as follows: Tests 70%, attendance & assignments 30%.  Tests: I will base seventy percent of your grade upon 10 daily tests  Each test will consist of one short answer question from the previous day's topic written in a blue book.  If you fail one of the tests, you must meet with me. The remaining thirty percent of the course grade comes from attendance in class and upon short daily assignments available through beachboard.   Beachboard assignments will test your knowledge of the readings. Grades for weekly assignments will be on a scale of 1-10.  I will have two optional extra-credit test revisions that will add up to 10% to the test grade.  I will also have multiple optional homework extra credit exercises that will add 20% to a single homework score if you complete the extra credit assignment with 70% correct or better. 

The university policy on withdrawals will be followed.

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Make-up exams: will be permitted only for serious illness and mandatory University policies. A physicians' note will be required for illness. If you will need to take a make-up exam, you must leave a message on voice mail (985-4345) no later than 9:00 a.m. the day of the exam or send an e-mail to me by that time. Your message must include a telephone number or e-mail address where I can reach you later that evening and the next day to schedule the make-up exam.

Cheating and Plagiarism: The CSULB Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism will be followed strictly. (See 2005-6 Catalog, pp. 75-6.) Students who have any questions or uncertainty whatsoever about this policy are responsible for meeting individually with the instructor to discuss the policy. Students found to be cheating on any exam, quiz, or other course element will be FAILED for the COURSE and will be reported to the Office of Judicial Affairs for possible probation, suspension, or expulsion.

Withdrawals: I follow the university policy on withdrawals.  I have no disinclination towards signing withdrawal forms up until the last date allowed by the university policy.   

Disabilities: I am happy to accommodate any students with disabilities.  It is the student's responsibility to inform me of their disability and need for accommodation.  The office of Disabled Student Services (5-5061) serves as an information source and evaluates students’ needs.  DSS often proctors tests for students with disabilities.

Goals: I have five basic goals for this course: (1) Students show marked improvement in their ability to read and evaluate relatively complex and abstract material with sufficient understanding to articulate its theses and arguments.  (2) Students show marked improvement in their ability to articulate and evaluate arguments and theses on the logical and evidential merit of those arguments and theses. Students should show improvement both in their written work and in their verbal responses.  (3) Students should demonstrate a significant increase in their knowledge of major ethical questions, theories, and theoreticians. Also desirable is the development of a broader historical context in which these questions, theories, and theoriticians have developed.  (4) Students should show a grasp of the practical implications and real-world instances of ethical questions and theories, including a sense of the potential impact of ethical theories on the student’s life, conception of themselves, and the student's conception of society (and their own place in society). (5) Students improve their writing abilities, particularly with respect to their ability to write concise, highly organized, and self-contained statements of positions and arguments for positions.