Summer, 2004

Instructor: Richard Blanke
Office: Smith House (1007 20th St.)
Telephone: 351-1567
Office Hours: 12:30-1:45 p.m. TTh, and by appointment
E-mail: rablank@yahoo.com

Course Objectives

The course is intended to acquaint students with some of the philosophical issues in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. Some of the issues to be examined include: What is knowledge? What things can we properly be said to know? How is knowledge acquired? Are some actions truly right or wrong? Are some things truly good or bad?

Course Method

We will attempt to meet these course objectives by focusing on the subject matter of ethics and by examining opposing answers to the following questions: What are the criteria for the concepts “right” and “wrong”? Does the possibility of moral truth require the existence of God? Can we have knowledge of right and wrong? If so, then how is such knowledge acquired? Do good and evil exist?

Text

Ethics: Selections from Classical and Contemporary Writers (seventh edition), Oliver Johnson, ed. — available at The Book Stop, which is located on the corner of 16th St. & 10th Ave.)

Course Outline

Introduction to Ethics — Descriptive, Analytic, Normative Ethics.
Principles of Ethics — Nonmaleficence, Beneficence, Utility, Autonomy, Justice.
Logic and Reasoning in General — statements and the nature of truth and falsehood; nature of, and differences between belief, knowledge, and opinion; inductive and deductive reasoning; soundness and validity; valid and invalid argument forms; informal fallacies.
Reasoning about Values
Normative Ethics
- Divine Command Theory — Euthyphro — Plato
- A Concept of Faith — Fear and Trembling — Kierkegaard
- Character Ethics — Nicomachean Ethics — Aristotle
- Ethical Egoism — Leviathan (selections) — Thomas Hobbes
- A Refutation of Psychological Egoism — Sermons — Joseph Butler
- Nonconsequentialism — The Right and the Good (selections) — W.D. Ross
Analytic Ethics
- Emotivism and Naturalism — A Treatise of Human Nature (selections) — David Hume

Evaluation

Evaluation of the student will be based on a mid-term exam (25% of grade); an end-of-the-term exam (50% of the grade); a term paper of five pages in length (topic to be chosen by me, 25% of grade); quality of classroom participation.