FORUM POSTS	Due before Sunday 11:55pm each week	10% of grade
FIRST MIDTERM EXAM	Begins: Wednesday April 19 at 3:30pm Ends: Thursday, April 27 at 7pm	30% of grade
SECOND MIDTERM EXAM	Begins: Wednesday, May 10 at 3:30pm Ends: Thursday May 18 at 7pm	30% of grade
FINAL EXAM	Begins: Wednesday, June 7 at 3:30pm Ends: Thursday June 15 at 5pm	30% of grade

WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS: Philosophy is an attempt to come to a systematic understanding of the objective world through the use of reason. The philosophical approach is 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 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, God, the soul, an afterlife, free will or, in the case of this class, universal, objective moral values (or perhaps today, the widespread dogma that morality is relative or subjective). Philosophy uses conceptual analysis as its tool. Because of this, using precise language and properly defining terms are very important to philosophers. This goes all the way back to Socrates. If it seems a bit too rigorous for you, read some so-called modern philosophers in the Continental tradition, and you'll see why it's necessary.

WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS NOT: Philosophy is not about exploring your "personal beliefs." Nor is it about your feelings (please avoid the phrase "I feel" when expressing your point of view in the classroom or online forums, as hopefully what you have to say is based on more than your subjective emotional state). Philosophy is not about your identity, your gender, your culture or your "race." It's not about "how you were raised." Please avoid referring to these things in class or online forums unless they have some direct bearing on the issue at hand. 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 of note until the beginnings of the feminist movement in the 19th century. This was true of most other academic or otherwise, due to the institutionalization of pre-modern gender roles. Because this is a survey class concerned with major figures and concepts in ethics, we won't be reading a lot of women philosophers. This should in no way be seen as casting aspersions on women as a class of people, but to arbitrarily select a female author based purely on her gender, regardless of objective merit, intellectual influence or contribution to the field, would be an act of sexism and educational malpractice. We will be spending a significant amount of time with Ayn Rand, who happens to be a woman and also one 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 political concepts on which the United States was founded). Although we will discuss some Eastern traditions, the character of Eastern philosophy is very different from Western philosophy and treated covered in more depth in our religion courses. The wisdom traditions of other civilizations, particularly indigenous cultures, are covered in history and cultural anthropology courses.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Ethics is the study of morality, including an analysis of the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice, duty, responsibility, character, and successful living. Possible topics include whether morality is relative to culture or to the individual, the relationship between morality and religion, theories about what make particular actions right or wrong, moral skepticism, and eastern perspectives on right action.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: The objectives are this course are for students to (1) come to a clearer understanding of ethical issues through the study of classical and contemporary theories (2) acquire some factual knowledge about the history of philosophy and important philosophical thinkers (3) come to their own conclusions about which 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 (5) apply conclusions about the nature of knowledge to their present way of assessing evidence and worldviews.