WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS: Philosophy is the attempt to come to a systematic understanding of the objective world through the use of reason. The philosophical approach assumes a commitment to follow the truth wherever it leads, however uncomfortable it may make us and in spite of what we may wish to be true. It strives for logical consistency and agreement with the empirical evidence. Philosophy is about asking questions, especially questions no one else wants to ask. Philosophy even questions the unquestionable, including things considered to be "common sense," such as the existence of an external world of matter, free will, God, the soul, an afterlife, or, in the case of this class, the existence of universal, objective moral values (or perhaps the unquestionable certainty of our age is the dogma that morality is culturally relative or completely subjective). Philosophy uses conceptual analysis as its primary tool. Properly analyzing concepts requires the rigorous definition of terms, so the precise use of language is very important to philosophers, or at least to the good ones. This goes all the way back to Socrates. Fuzzy language evinces fuzzy thinking.

WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS NOT: Philosophy is not about exploring your "personal beliefs." Nor is it about your feelings, as reality is not based on your subjective emotional state. Philosophy is not about your identity, your sex, your gender, your sexual orientation, your culture or your "race." It's not about your faith or "how you were raised." Avoid thinking in these terms and using subjective phrases like "personally" and "in my personal opinion" when doing philosophy. Philosophy (and indeed all academic discourse) is about your impersonal opinion, i.e. your opinion backed by reasons and evidence. Although there is an historical tradition associated with philosophy, it is not primarily about history, and even though understanding their historical or cultural context may help us understand the ideas of particular philosophers, it is the ideas themselves with which philosophy is concerned.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF WOMEN AND NON-WESTERN CULTURES: There were few women philosophers until the beginning of the feminist movement in the 19th century. This was true of most other academic fields due to the institutionalization of pre-modern gender roles. Because this is a survey class concerned with major historical figures and basic concepts in ethics, we won't be reading many women philosophers. This should in no way be seen as casting aspersions on women as a class of people. We will, however, be spending a significant amount of time with Ayn Rand, who happens to be a woman and also one of the most important and influential philosophers and intellectuals of the 20th century, especially in ethics and political philosophy.

Along those same lines, for various complex historical and cultural reasons, philosophy emerged and flourished in the West and is the heritage of Western Civilization. It uniquely sowed the seeds for the scientific and industrial revolutions in Western Europe, leading to our modern technological world, as well as providing the social and political concepts on which the United States was founded. Like the scientific method and industrial production techniques, Western concepts such as individual rights, separation of Church and State, democratic self-government, meritocracy and free market capitalism have been adopted by many non-Western societies and diffused throughout the world. This is yet another reason to focus on theories of value that arose from and influenced the development of the Western world and, consequently, the rest of human civilization. The ethical traditions of other civilizations, including indigenous cultures, are covered extensively in history, cultural anthropology and ethnic studies courses.

Finally, it is important to understand that "Western" is just a conventional term for ideas which first emerged in Western Europe. An idea's place of origin or the particulars of the person who first developed or expounded it has nothing whatever to do with its truth value or importance in increasing human understanding. Newton and Leibniz discovered calculus around the same time and each accused the other of stealing his discovery. Yet calculus is neither essentially a British idea nor a German idea, nor is it a European or "white male" idea. Who was first to discover it, where he lived and the details of his ancestry and nationality are irrelevant to the validity and usefulness of calculus. So it is with all intellectual discoveries and theoretical innovations, including those concerning moral value.

CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Ethics is the study of morality, including an analysis of the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, justice, responsibility, duty, character and successful living. Topics include whether morality is relative to culture or to the individual, moral skepticism, the relationship between morality and religion, theories about what makes particular actions right or wrong, the source of moral knowledge and how morality affects the way we approach controversial social issues.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: The objectives for this course are for students to (1) come to a clearer understanding of ethical concepts through the study of classical and contemporary theories, (2) acquire some factual knowledge about the history of ethics and important ethical thinkers, (3) come to their own conclusions about which ethical theories are best or most likely to be true, even if those conclusions are of a tentative nature, (4) acquire critical and analytical reasoning skills along the way, and (5) apply conclusions about the nature of moral value to their present way of life.

READING: It is important to read the material in order to perform well on exams and online forums.

AUDIO PODCASTS: In addition to written text in Moodle, this class uses audio podcasts from a previous term's face-to-face class. Make sure to listen to these each week, as they will explain the readings, whiteboard notes and Powerpoint slides in Moodle. There may be material on the exams which is contained in these recordings but not explicitly stated in the text. Feel free to skip over any announcements at the beginning of the recordings. Any current announcements will be posted to the Announcement Forum or Social Forum.

FORUM POSTS: The purpose of the forum assignment is to allow you the opportunity to interpret, evaluate and apply what you have learned, and to discuss the merits and implications of class concepts and theories with your classmates. It emphasizes peer-to-peer learning in which you learn from your fellow students. Every Monday a new forum prompt will be posted. To receive full credit for the forum, you must make two posts, one original post and one reply to another student, of 100 to 300 words. Most weeks there will be multiple topics from which to choose. Your original post and reply can be two different topics. You do not have to make an original post or reply to every topic. You just need one original post and one reply to the forum for the week and before the deadline.

Since I am using set topics and prompts, an "original post" is defined as a post which responds directly to the prompt. To make an original post, click the "reply" link in the prompt. To reply to another student, click the reply link in that student's post. Your post must substantially and directly address the prompt and displays a familiarity with the reading, i.e. your post must be distinguishable from someone who hasn't done any of the reading, looks at the prompt and "gives their opinion." Avoid all titles, headers, greetings and signatures. Moodle displays your name, the date, the topic and the forum week; duplicating this information clutters up the forum. When replying to another student, you can include that student's first name in your reply. Write in block format with no indenting, single-spaced with spacing between paragraphs, and using the default font. It is recommended that you compose your post in Google Docs or Word (or similar word-processor) and check the word count by choosing Tools --> Word Count. This will also prevent your post being lost in case of a connection error in Moodle. If you're pasting from Google docs, Microsoft Word or similar programs, you may need to save as plain text first. After you've posted, make sure that your post's formatting looks OK, that the font size and type matches everyone else's and that there are no extra spaces above or below the text (a common problem with copying and pasting). Your post formatting must look exactly like the prompt. Formatting errors will be penalized. See the Student Help Desk for help using Moodle forums.

Read the prompt carefully before answering. Be careful about misinterpreting or misunderstanding the question or wandering into irrelevant biographical information or personal anecdotes unless you're absolutely sure they apply to the subject. The inclusion of irrelevant material a.k.a. "going off on tangents" may result in no credit. Posts which do not directly address the prompt will not receive credit. When replying to another student, make sure that student's post is not off-topic or you may not receive credit for your reply. Support your answer with examples that demonstrate your understanding of the concepts being discussed, and present arguments to support your claims. If you have trouble coming up with 100 words, you probably need to include an examples to clarify your claim or an arguments in support of it. It is up to you to convince me that you understand the material, not up to me to try to wring some modicum of comprehension out of vaguely worded assertions without examples or illustrations or to try to figure out whether what you say could be reasonably construed as an "argument." If you receive no credit and tell me what you meant by your post was such and such, I will tell you that then you should have written that.

You will have 30 minutes to edit your post. Moodle will display your word count; make sure it is over 100 but under 300 words. Carefully revise and proofread your post for typos, awkward language, conceptual vagueness and inconsistency. Posts making unsupported or contradictory claims will be penalized. Your post should not read like a stream of consciousness of you trying to figure things out "on the fly." It should not be a series of disjointed observations. If it helps you to write something like that first, go ahead, but then revise it into a clear, methodical and coherent argument. Avoid meaningless, introductory throw-away comments or restating the question; get straight to the point. If you pad your post with meaningless fluff at the beginning, you may no receive credit for insufficient word count. Be concise.

The first week gives an overview of ethics and the moves on to the theory of moral relativism. Next, we will move on to moral skepticism and then examine several absolutist theories of morality. After the first week has concluded and we have moved on to other theories, posts which invoke relativism will receive no credit. This includes statements such as "everyone has their own morals" or "every culture has its own version of morality." Any statement implying that morality is relative to culture or the individual when analyzing moral skepticism or any subsequent absolutist theories will be considered off-topic and result in no credit. From Week Two on, you are to treat moral truths, if they exist at all, as universal and objective.

Plagiarism, which includes but is not limited to copying and pasting from websites, will result in a penalty of one letter grade on the first offense (10% of your course grade) and an F in the course on the second offense. If you do the readings, you should have no trouble responding to the prompt in a way that is sufficient for credit without looking at any other sources.

Postings will be awarded a grade of "2" (full credit), "1"(partial credit) or "0" (no credit) and are due before Sunday 11:59 pm at the end of each week. Make sure you have at least one original post and one reply to another student for full credit. You can post as many times as you like, but the maximum credit for each weekly forum is 4 points. Each forum is worth 2% of your grade, totaling 20% by the end of the term. Please note that I have the gradebook set to ignore empty grades. Therefore, if you miss a forum post, it won't show up in your grade until the end of the term when I will turn that setting off. I have that setting on to give you an accurate assessment of your grade throughout the term, assuming you complete the assignments.

Late posts will not receive credit. Set a weekly reminder in your phone or online calendar so you don't forget to post (while you're at it, you might want to put in the exam dates and grade option/drop deadline, too). Posts of fewer than 100 words will receive no credit. If your post is over 300 words, edit it down. Posts of over 300 words will be penalized. There will be an Extra Credit Forum in Week Ten to make up for two missed or no-credit original posts or replies.

EXAMS: The exam format will be multiple choice and true/false questions. The final will not be comprehensive. Each exam has a study guide linked in Moodle. Read the questions and make sure you can answer each of them. You may even want to write out the answers, which you can consult while taking the exam. If you don't know the answer to a particular question, search the relevant section of the online textbook, the Powerpoints, whiteboard captures and your notes from the audio podcasts for the answer. If you are still unsure or have questions about the reading or podcasts, attend the Zoom tutoring hours listed above. Even if you don't have any particular questions, you are encouraged to attend Zoom tutoring hours for help in doing your very best on the exams. Also, make sure to take the short practice quizzes each week.

Once you take the exam, you will immediately receive your score. If you would like to review the questions you got wrong, visit the Philosophy Tutor's Zoom Office Hours. Reviewing which questions you got wrong on the first two midterm exams will be helpful to you when you take the Comprehensive Midterm Exam, which will cover the same material.

The lowest of your three midterm exam scores is automatically dropped (note that this does not include the Final Exam). This means that even if you get an F on the First Midterm Exam, you can get some help with the class, figure out where you went wrong, apply yourself, and possibly end up with an A in the class.

You will have a week to take the First and Second Midterm, a few more days for Comprehensive Midterm and five days for Final Exam. Exams are taken via Moodle with a time limit of one hour. The opening and closing times of exams are listed in the table above and in the course outline at the end of the syllabus. Clicking on any exam in the main course view in Moodle will also show you the opening and closing dates as well as the chapters and weeks it covers.

EXAM DEADLINE POLICY: Since you will have at least a week to take each midterm, you will be expected to meet the deadline, however, you may contact the Philosophy Tutor, listed at the top of this syllabus, by Moodle message (not email)  to request an extension without penalty. Please include the class, the exam and the date you would like it extended to in your message. If you miss the deadline for the Final due to some unforeseen circumstance or emergency situation, contact the instructor via Moodle message for options ASAP.

Since I have the gradebook set to ignore empty grades, if you miss an exam, just like a missed forum post, you won't see the effect on your grade until the end of the term when I turn that setting off. If you got an 80% on the First Midterm but that's the only exam you take, the gradebook might tell you that you have a 80 in the course, or even an 84% if you didn't do any forum posts either, but your grade would be 16%, an F. Again, Moodle will tell you your grade based on the assignments completed so far. Anything you don't complete will be converted to a zero at the end of the term. Make sure to complete all of the exams by the deadlines!

GRADING: There is no curve. At the end of the term, the class will be graded on the following absolute scale, with course totals rounded up to the nearest whole number: