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 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, 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 (please avoid the phrase "I feel" when expressing your point of view in class, as hopefully what you have to say is based on more than 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." Please avoid referring to these things in class 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 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 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 methods, Western concepts such as individual human rights, separation of Church and State, democratic self-government, meritocracy and free market capitalism have been adopted by other 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 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 the West Europe. An idea's place of origin or the particulars of the person who first developed or expounded it has nothing whatever to 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.

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 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.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance is worth 10% of your grade. There will be a sign-in sheet each class; make sure to sign it. There will be no class Wednesday, July 4 (Independence Day). The last day of class, Thursday, July 19 is an optional review session that will also make up for one absence (even if you missed class no classes, you might want to attend anyway to help prepare for the final).