Required Text:
Pojman, Louis P.  Ethical Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings.  Third Edition.  New York: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1998.

Course Goals:
This course will introduce you to some of the central issues, texts, and theories of ethics.  Ethics is the branch of philosophy that addresses questions about value and human action.  These questions include: How should I act?  How can we decide which of two possible actions is the right one?  Are different ethical systems equally acceptable, or are some people’s values just wrong?  By the end of the course, you should be familiar with a variety of ethical theories.  You should also be better able to identify and analyze positions in philosophical texts than you were at the start of the course, and this ability should be evident in your writing and in your contributions to academic discussions.  No previous coursework in philosophy is required for this course.

Required Work:

•  Attend and participate in all class meetings
•  Read assignments from the text before each class meeting
•  Complete a series of brief, unannounced in-class quizzes
•  Write both rough and final drafts of three 4 – 6 page papers on assigned topics

The quizzes will consist of short questions such as definitions and true/false.  Quizzes will not be announced, and there will be no make-up quizzes.  Quiz grades will be on a percentage basis.  Students who must miss quizzes because of true emergencies, illness or religious holidays are required to notify me in advance.  Students with excused absences will have their quiz grades computed as a percentage of a lower number of points, depending on how many points were on the quizzes missed.  Quizzes missed with no excused absence will receive no credit.

Assignments and deadlines for the papers will be distributed in class.  Late papers will be accepted at a penalty of one letter grade per day.  No excuses will be accepted for an assignment after the deadline has passed.
 

Course Schedule
This schedule is subject to change.  Assignments will be announced at each class meeting for the next class meeting.  The topics and assignments for the last three sessions are marked to be announced in case our discussions put us behind schedule.

                         Date             Topic: Assignment
 

First week         22-Sep           Syllabus distributed—no class

                         23-Sep           Why be moral? & Ethics and Religion: Read Plato (XI.1)

                         25-Sep           Ethics and Religion: Read Kant (XI.2)

Second Week   28-Sep           Ethics and Religion: Read Nielsen (XI.5); 1st. paper assign. distrib

                         30-Sep           no class

                         2-Oct             Relativism and objectivism: Read Herodotus and Aquinas

Third Week       5-Oct             First Rough Draft Due—bring 4 copies

                         7-Oct             Relativism and objectivism: Read Pojman

                         9-Oct             Relativism and objectivism: Read Harman

Fourth Week    12-Oct            First Paper Due

                        14-Oct            Utilitarianism: Read Bentham (IV.1)

                        16-Oct            Utilitarianism: Read Mill

Fifth Week       19-Oct            Utilitarianism: Read Williams

                        21-Oct            Deontology: Read Kant (VI.I.); 2nd paper assign. distrib.

                        23-Oct            Deontology: Review Kant ( VI.I.)

Sixth Week      26-Oct            Deontology and Intuitionism: Read Ross (VI.2.)

                        28-Oct            Second Rough Draft Due—bring 4 copies

                        30-Oct            Moral Sense Theory: Read Butler (on reserve)

Seventh Week  2-Nov             Moral Sense Theory: Read P. F. Strawson (on reserve)

                        4-Nov             Ethical Language: Read Hare (VIII.5)

                        6-Nov             Second Paper Due

Eighth Week     9-Nov             Ethical Language: Read Ayer (VIII.3)

                        11-Nov           Virtue: Read Aristotle (VII.1)

                        13-Nov           Virtue: Read Bennett (VII.9); final assign. distrib.

Ninth Week     16-Nov            TBA

                        18-Nov            TBA

                        20-Nov            TBA

Tenth Week     23-Nov            final rough draft due

                        25-Nov            last class

Exam Week     TBA                 Third papers due