PHIL 140:CONTEMPORARY MORAL & SOCIAL ISSUES
SYLLABUS FALL 2008
Tue & Thu 2:00 – 3:20, SGM 123
Instructor: Professor Andrei Marmor
Email:
Room: Law 464
Office Hours: TBA
Course Requirements:
Mid-term paper (about 1200 words). (30% of the final grade)
Mid-term exam: (30% of the final grade)
Final exam: (40% of the final grade)
Policies:
Students who need to request accommodations based on a disability are required to register each semester with the Disability Services and Programs. In addition, a letter of verification to the instructors from the Disability Services and Programs is needed for the semester you are enrolled in this course. If you have any questions concerning this procedure, please contact the course instructor and Disability Services and Programs at (213) 740-0776, STU 301.
We will adhere rigorously to the university's policies on academic integrity as described in the latest edition of SCampus. Violations, during exams or quizzes or through plagiarism in written work, will be reported to the Office for Student Conduct.
Required text:
B. MacKinnon, (ed), Ethics: Theory & Contemporary Issues, 6th edition.
Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction
a. Introductory discussion: the case of torturing terrorist suspects.
b. Euthanasia – pp. 136-161.
Week 2: Moral Reasoning
a. The nature of moral reasoning – pp. 1-12
b. Relativism –pp. 18-24.
Week 3: Consequentialism.
a. Utilitarianism – pp. 51-73.
b. Contemporary critique.
Week 4: Kant’s Moral Philosophy.
a. & b. – pp. 75-95.
Week 5: The Permissibility of Abortions
a. The main questions and the “pro-choice” argument – pp. 173-197.
b. The main objections – pp. 197-205.
Week 6: Sexual Morality and Pornography.
a. The main issues – pp. 208-217 & 231-239.
b. K. MacKinnon “Pornography, Civil Rights and Speech” – online.
Week 7: Equality and Discrimination
a. How do understand discrimination? - pp 254-265.
b. Affirmative Action – pp. 265-278.
Week 8: Mid-term & Animals Rights
a. mid-term exam
b. Animals’ rights – pp. 379-403
Week 9: Genetic Engineering & Environmental ethics
a. Genetic engineering – pp. 406-428
b. environmental ethics – 349-367.
Week 10: Legal Punishment
a. The general issues – pp. 312-323.
b. Capital punishment – pp. 324-337.
Week 11: Justice in Wars and Terrorism
a. Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello – pp. 438-450 & 455-460
b. Terrorism – pp. 451-454.
Week 12: Economic Justice
a & b. Rawls’s Theory of Justice – pp. 294-300.
Week 13: Economic Justice [continued]
a. The Libertarian critique, Nozick – pp. 300-309
b. Contemporary critiques.
Week 14: Global Justice
a. the concerns about Globalization – pp. 464-473 & 483-487
b. global justice and redistribution – pp. 475-483.
Week 15: Revision.
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