PHIL 1104: Philosophy and Social Ethics

Hi! This is the course page for my Spring 2015 section of PHIL 1104: Philosophy and Social Ethics, at the University of Connecticut - Storrs. Below you will find a course description, syllabus, course readings, class presentations and other materials.

Students can use this site in lieu of logging into HuskyCT to get quick information, but note that some things (e.g. quizzes and some readings) will be unavailable through this page. Check back often for new updates - I will put up the Beamer slides each week after that week's quiz has closed.

Course Description

Ethics, the study of what we owe to others, is one of the most fundamental areas of inquiry in human life. All of us reason ethically often throughout our lives, both with and without realising it. This class will examine the three major aspects of ethical theory: metaethics, the study of ethical reasoning itself, normative ethics, the study of how we ought to reason ethically or do ethically and applied ethics, the application of normative ethical theory to substantive issues. Students taking this course will learn the fundamentals of the three major areas of ethical theory, as well as how to apply theoretical tools to issues in their daily lives.

Syllabus

You can download a copy of the syllabus here.

Lecture and Reading Schedule

You can view the schedule below. Most of the readings are from Russ Shafer-Landau's The Ethical Life: Fundamental Readings in Ethics and Moral Problems, which is the required text for this course. Readings which are not in the textbook are available freely online by clicking the links in the syllabus (they're the ones with blue outlines), and on the HuskyCT course.

Sorry mobile users, I can't figure out any way to get Scribd to appear on the mobile site. Switch over to the desktop/main version via the button on the bottom of the page and it should appear.

Slides

I've removed all my slides from the Spring 2015 semester so as not to spoil the fun of studying for my Fall 2015 students. If you'd like to view my slides, e.g. for evaluation of teaching, they're available upon request.