Ethics Courses

PHIL 470 – Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics provides an introduction to the ethical questions that arise when thinking about climate change, other environmental problems and the relationship between humans and the earth. In this class, we will explore a host of questions such as: 1) what are our obligations with regard to the environment; 2) how should we grasp the value of nature?; 3) what is the moral status of non-human animals?; 4) should we consider their wellbeing?; 5) what should we do about climate change?; 6) what role should technology play in tackling climate change?; 7) what do we really mean by sustainability?; and 8) do we have a duty to future generations, and if yes, what is it and why? Our discussions will be geared towards understanding our unique relationship to each other, to non-human animals and the world. This course will be steeped in controversial and complex questions which will demand a high level of receptivity.

Course Attributes:

• Environmental Sustainability
• Social Justice
• UD-C: Arts and/or Humanities

PHIL 450 – Ethics

This course will focus on the study of philosophy in its ancient meaning of the term, as a love of wisdom. That is to say, as a way of life, as a path for searching to understand the meaning of the cosmos and human life. One of the fundamental elements of human life revolves around the question of ethics: how are we meant to live, how are we meant to behave and act towards ourselves, other people and other life? In this course we will be exploring this fundamental question while also broadening the question to involve our responsibility to our own Self (care for the soul), our responsibility towards the animal world and our responsibility to our planet Earth. Here we will explore the relationship between one’s personal obligations to access a higher reality intrinsic to the universe and one’s own psyche, along with the obligation of expressing the good in life.

In order to explore the question of ethics, we must also look at other fundamental metaphysical, Psychological and epistemological ideas. These ideas will help and support the question of Ethics, for, as we shall see, no idea exists alone. We cannot begin understanding how to act without also understanding what the nature of reality is, how the structure of the human psyche operates, what is the process of receiving real knowledge, or what is the purpose of human life on Earth.

In doing so, we will be looking at different philosophers along with different spiritual traditions that contain varying metaphysical and ethical principles. Here we will be examining rational philosophical thought along with ethical systems that guide human life, and also knowledge as being transformative. That is to say, looking at philosophy as the practical process to transform one’s inner life, and consequently, what that entails for one’s own personal being and also for ethical living with other humans, the animal kingdom and planet Earth.

Course Attributes:

• Social Justice
• UD-C: Arts and/or Humanities

PHIL 451 – Feminist Moral Issues

This course explores a number of ethical and political issues of contemporary concern to feminists. We will begin by studying how scholars have theorized feminism, oppression, and intersectionality. Next, we will analyze how epistemic injustice drives misogyny, and learn how misogynist attitudes and policies further the oppression of women. In an effort to widen the scope of our examination beyond the West, students will also be exposed to ways in which women have adversely experienced sexism from a transnational perspective.

Course Attributes:

• Social Justice
• UD-C: Arts and/or Humanities
• Global Perspectives
• Am. Ethnic & Racial Minorities

This seminar will explore several cutting-edge themes, ideas, and debates in contemporary feminist ethics and political philosophy. In particular, we will examine recent work by feminist philosophers, critical race theorists, and other cultural critics on five interrelated, normative concepts: oppression, white supremacy, misogyny, epistemic injustice, and dehumanization. In addition to gaining a thorough understanding of these concepts, we will assess their usefulness for diagnosing and theorizing a number of pressing, present-day issues, including state violence, toxic public discourse, attacks on reproductive rights, sexual assault and victim blaming, misogynoir, transmisogyny, and willful epistemic ignorance. We will round out the course by discussing various forms of resistance to injustice, focusing on epistemic activism, solidarity, and self-care.