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 English 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.

COURSE 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 in online forums and on exams.

RECORDED ZOOM LECTURE/DISCUSSIONS: In addition to written text in Moodle and handouts, there are recorded Zoom lectures and discussion sessions. Make sure to watch these each week, as they will help you to understand the primary source readings in Moodle. There may be material on the exams which is covered in these sessions but not explicitly stated or covered in the text. For live interaction, see the tutor or attend Zoom office hours with the instructor.

QUIZZES: There are ten weekly quizzes based on that week's reading and zoom sessions. Some of these questions may appear again on the midterm exams and final. Quizzes are due every Sunday before 11:59pm. Late quizzes are not accepted. There will be an Extra Credit Quiz in Week Ten. The Syllabus Quiz from the first week will also count toward your quiz score. Out of these twelve quizzes your lowest two scores are dropped.

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 at least one post of 100 to 300 words. Most weeks there will be multiple topics from which to choose. Your post can be made to any topic. You do not have to post to every topic. You just need one post to the forum for the week before the deadline.

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. Posts below 100 words or above 300 words will be penalized. See the Student Help Desk for help using Moodle forums.

You may reply to the prompt directly with an original post or reply to another student. You do not need to do both. 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 display a familiarity with the reading and video lectures and discussions, i.e. your post must be distinguishable from someone who hasn't done any of the reading or seen the lectures, looks at the prompt and "gives their opinion." Avoid phrases like "personally" or "in my personal opinion." You are expected to give your impersonal opinion, backed by logical arguments. Avoid tedious references to lots of people having lots of different opinions on the subject or the suggestion that this fact alone -- if it is a fact -- shows that "there is no (one) answer." Assume that there is an answer, and say what you think that answer might be.

After the first week, avoid invoking relativism or framing ethical issues in relativistic terms. Assume from Week Two onward that ethics is objective (i.e. even if, as skeptics claim, it's illegitimate, then suppose it's illegitimate for everyone). From Week Three onward, assume ethics is real, universal and absolute and that you are attempting to discover which theory, if any, best describes and justifies it.

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. Posts which do not directly address the prompt will not receive credit. The inclusion of irrelevant material a.k.a. "going off on tangents," will be penalized. Before replying to another student, make sure that student's post is directly responsive to the topic. If it isn't on topic, the original poster won't receive any credit and neither will you. "Me, too" and "Good job!" comments will not receive credit. You need to add something original to the discussion: a supporting example, a counter-example or objection, an observation, an application, a request for clarification, etc. Your answer should include examples or illustrations that demonstrate your understanding of the concepts being discussed and present arguments to support your claims. Chains of unsupported assertions without supporting examples, illustrations or arguments will be penalized. It is up to you to convince me in the space allotted that you understand the material; it is not up to me to pore over vaguely worded assertions without examples or illustrations in order to divine whether you understand the material or to attempt to judge whether what you say could reasonably be construed as an "argument." You need a claim (that is, a clear answer to the prompt) and an argument for it. Simply explaining the point of view of one of philosophers under discussion or various possible takes on an issue is not sufficient. Say what take you think is correct and why. 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. Posts which are dashed off in five minutes without serious thought and consideration with no revision or proofreading are unlikely to receive full credit. Please put some thought and effort into your posts.

You will have 30 minutes to edit your post after you have made it. Moodle will display your word count; make sure it is over 100 but under 300 words. Make sure the font and formatting matches other posts and that there are no blank spaces at the bottom. Carefully revise and proofread your post for typos, awkward language, conceptual vagueness and inconsistency. Make every word count. Make sure you are using the right words. Use proper grammar. Avoid long run-on sentences and ambiguous reference problems.

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 not receive credit for insufficient word count. Omit needless words. Be concise.

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. The borrowing of an opinion from a secondary source, even if cited, is strongly discouraged. This is not a research assignment; this is an opportunity for you to do some philosophizing. Don't be a second-hander.

Postings will be awarded a grade of "4" (full credit) to "0" (no credit) and are due before Sunday 11:59 pm at the end of each week. You can post as many times as you like before the deadline. Please note that I have the grade book set to ignore empty grades. Therefore, if you miss the deadline for a forum post, it won't show up in your grade until the end of the term when I will turn that setting off. At that time, all empty grades will turn to zeros. I have the "ignore empty grades" setting on now to give you a meaningful and accurate assessment of your grade "thus far" at any point in the term, assuming you complete the assignments.

Late posts are not accepted. Posting after the deadline is blocked. 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 one missed or no-credit post (i.e. up to 4 extra points, which you also may have lost with scores of 3, 2, or 1, as well). Make sure to go back and look at feedback from the instructor to not just your posts but those by other students before posting to this Extra Credit Forum. You can also hedge your bets by posting twice each week, as there is no limit to the number of posts you can make.

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, your notes from the Zoom sessions 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 and earn extra credit.

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 scores is dropped. Note that this applies only to the midterm exams, and 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 about a week to take the First and Second Midterm Exams, two weeks for the Comprehensive Midterm, and a week for the 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, in the course outline below and in the Weekly Outline in Moodle. Clicking on any exam in the main course view in Moodle will also show you the exact opening and closing dates and times as well, along with 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 before the deadline during Zoom drop-in hours to request an extension without penalty. Make sure to tell the tutor the correct exam and have in mind the date to which you would like the exam extended. 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 grade book 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 near 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 grade book might tell you that you have a 80% for your midterms, but your grade would actually be 40% (the average of an 80% and a zero with the other zero being treated as your lowest grade and dropped). 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 near 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: