Descriptions for ETHS 390

ETHS 390-01A:  Ethics in Everyday Life 
Jean Keller
Students face a variety of ethical challenges in their daily lives. Finding the right balance between one's obligations to self and to others in one's friendships, romantic life, work life, and family life are one set of ethical concerns.   Daily news headlines, that highlight challenging and seemingly intractable social problems, bring our attention to another.  In this course we'll address ethical issues in everyday life, ranging from the ethics of interpersonal relationships to our obligations as informed citizens with regard to the pressing social problems of our day. We'll study contemporary moral theories (virtue ethics, care ethics, deontology) and debates within moral theory and use this theoretical understanding to engage problems posed by students' own lives and by news headlines.

ETHS 390-02A:  Political Philosophy:  Democracy, Freedom and Inequality
Charles Wright
This class will first introduce students to key ideas of the most influential political philosophies in the English speaking world.  Then we will have an opportunity to use these ideas to better understand challenges currently facing citizens of the United States.  Michael Sandel's Justice:  What's the Right Thing To Do will provide us with a clear, accessible, and reliable introduction to the basic concepts of contemporary Western moral and political philosophy.  Equipped with these philosophical perspectives, we will then critically examine the personal challenges created by consumer society, the social harms caused by economic inequality, and the worldwide struggle for the rights and dignity of women.

ETHS 390-03A:  Happiness is......
Rodger Narloch
When people are asked what they want in life, a common response is that they just want to be happy.  But what is happiness and how do we attain it?  In this course, we will discuss a variety of different perspectives on these questions.  We will address what self-focused happiness might look like, but then transition to questions of how an individual's happiness relates to the happiness of others (and which others?).  Furthermore, we will discuss what it means to be morally good and the extent to which being good is a necessary component in being happy.  Finally, we will think about the nature of choices and decision making, especially as they relate to the formation of one's identity and vocation or path in life.  Ultimately, students will have to propose their own educated model or theory of happiness and articulate its implications for how they plan to live their lives.  These topics will be covered through extensive class discussion based on significant amounts of writing in response to readings from philosophical, psychological, as well as Catholic and Benedictine perspectives.

ETHS 390-04A:  Ethics in Everyday Life 
Jean Keller
Students face a variety of ethical challenges in their daily lives. Finding the right balance between one's obligations to self and to others in one's friendships, romantic life, work life, and family life are one set of ethical concerns.   Daily news headlines, that highlight challenging and seemingly intractable social problems, bring our attention to another.  In this course we'll address ethical issues in everyday life, ranging from the ethics of interpersonal relationships to our obligations as informed citizens with regard to the pressing social problems of our day. We'll study contemporary moral theories (virtue ethics, care ethics, deontology) and debates within moral theory and use this theoretical understanding to engage problems posed by students' own lives and by news headlines.

ETHS 390-05A:  Political Philosophy:  Democracy, Freedom and Inequality
Charles Wright
This class will first introduce students to key ideas of the most influential political philosophies in the English speaking world.  Then we will have an opportunity to use these ideas to better understand challenges currently facing citizens of the United States.  Michael Sandel's Justice:  What's the Right Thing To Do will provide us with a clear, accessible, and reliable introduction to the basic concepts of contemporary Western moral and political philosophy.  Equipped with these philosophical perspectives, we will then critically examine the personal challenges created by consumer society, the social harms caused by economic inequality, and the worldwide struggle for the rights and dignity of women.

ETHS 390-06A:  What is a Monster?
Shane Miller
This course will use monsters as a means of examining ethical issues. Using novels, stories, films, and reports, students will explore: how we have historically drawn boundaries between monsters and humans; the cultural and social factors that shape our monsters; and, the issues at stake in how we choose to confront our monsters. Students will learn and use a variety of ethical perspectives to reason through these issues. This course has a lab.  (we are working out the details for the film lab meeting time/place)

ETHS 390-07A:  Building Fences? Understanding War Refugees, Immigration and National Identity
Marina Martin
This course discusses immigration through the ethical problems it raises and the various forms of social tragedies and moral abuses that come with it in modern society.  Thousands of immigrants lose their lives when trying to reach their destiny abroad.  Do all people have a right to emigrate?  Is the identity and safety of a given nation threaten by the flow of immigrants?  Should nations adopt John Lennon's dream "Imagine all the people sharing all the world?"   Students will be exposed to a selection of readings, films and documentaries dealing with moral issues raised by cultural and ethnic differences.   

ETHS 390-08A:  Happiness Is ...
Rodger Narloch
When people are asked what they want in life, a common response is that they just want to be happy.  But what is happiness and how do we attain it?  In this course, we will discuss a variety of different perspectives on these questions.  We will address what self-focused happiness might look like, but then transition to questions of how an individual's happiness relates to the happiness of others (and which others?).  Furthermore, we will discuss what it means to be morally good and the extent to which being good is a necessary component in being happy.  Finally, we will think about the nature of choices and decision making, especially as they relate to the formation of one's identity and vocation or path in life.  Ultimately, students will have to propose their own educated model or theory of happiness and articulate its implications for how they plan to live their lives.  These topics will be covered through extensive class discussion based on significant amounts of writing in response to readings from philosophical, psychological, as well as Catholic and Benedictine perspectives.

ETHS 390-09A:  Others
Cunningham, Tony
We share our lives by both necessity and design with others.  Born utterly dependent, we rely entirely upon the care and kindness of others for our very survival.  Even when we no longer depend upon others to feed, clothe, and protect us, we must figure out what sorts of responsibilities we bear to others and what responsibilities they have to us.  Some people may seem relatively distant, bound to us only in the basic sense that we share in some common humanity.  Others can seem so important to us that we might not wish to go on without them.  In this course we'll examine the responsibilities we bear to each other in various respects-as human beings, as friends, as family, as brothers and sisters in common causes.  We'll also look at the ways in which people turn their backs on others and misuse them in cruel and oppressive ways.  Using sources drawn from philosophy, literature, history, memoir, and the social sciences, we'll put our minds to what we owe others and what others owe us.

ETHS 390-10A:  Good, Evil & the Limitations of Human Nature
John Houston
All of us are familiar with the terms "good" and "evil". Furthermore, we have all at some time used these terms in reference to persons or their actions. This phenomenon is the focal point of this class. In this course we will seek to address a variety of questions related to good and evil. Some of these questions include: What are the conceptual origins of our judgments about good and evil? Can we objectively say of some actions or persons that they are good or evil?-Or do terms like good and evil merely serve as expressions of our individual preferences? In virtue of what do we describe people as good or evil? Are some people born evil and others good, or do they become so? If they become so, how does this happen? Philosophers and famous literary personalities have grappled with these questions. We will draw upon their resources to reflect on these questions and attempt to articulate our own answers to them. In this course students will be required to read, think, write, attend class, and contribute to thoughtful dialogue.

ETHS 390-11A:  War & Memory
Nick Hayes
Our course examines the ethical issues of the conduct and representation of war from the Great War (WWI) to today's "war on terrorism." Our theme follows that shift of strategy from targeting military casualties to the predominant emphasis on civilian casualties as evident in the case studies of the Vietnam War, WWI, the Holocaust, the Troubles in Ireland, and the wars of genocide in our time - Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the post-Cold War conflicts of Russia, and the "war on terrorism."

ETHS 390-12A:  Reading for Life
Cunningham, Tony
Everyone loves a good story.  Great stories can provide us with far more than mere recreation.  Stories can provide us with rich character portraits that can reveal the subtleties and nuances of what it means to live well and responsibly.  In this course we'll use novels and films to address Socrates' most basic ethical questions, "How should one live?" and "What sort of person should I be?"  We'll do so by attending to all the concrete, particular details of real life and fictional characters thoroughly embroiled in the "business of living."  Reading well offers the possibility of vicarious experience and ultimately, ethical insight. 
Our readings will include: The Crucible (Arthur Miller),
Ransom (David Malouf),
The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro),
Beloved (Toni Morrison),
Hecuba (Euripides),
How To Be Good  (Nick Hornby),
Glengarry Glen Ross (David Mamet), and
Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier).

ETHS 390-13A:  Good, Evil & the Limitations of Human Nature
John Houston
All of us are familiar with the terms "good" and "evil". Furthermore, we have all at some time used these terms in reference to persons or their actions. This phenomenon is the focal point of this class. In this course we will seek to address a variety of questions related to good and evil. Some of these questions include: What are the conceptual origins of our judgments about good and evil? Can we objectively say of some actions or persons that they are good or evil?-Or do terms like good and evil merely serve as expressions of our individual preferences? In virtue of what do we describe people as good or evil? Are some people born evil and others good, or do they become so? If they become so, how does this happen? Philosophers and famous literary personalities have grappled with these questions. We will draw upon their resources to reflect on these questions and attempt to articulate our own answers to them. In this course students will be required to read, think, write, attend class, and contribute to thoughtful dialogue.

ETHS 390-14A:  Folktales and the Foundation of Modern Morality
Andreas Kiryakakis
The study of Folktales is especially well suited for a discussion of ethics because it presents us with a wide variety of issues and moral situations.  It gives us an opportunity to make informed and responsible decisions about a multiplicity of different concerns. An understanding of the meaning of an individual's life is not something acquired at a particular age.  It is the result of a long development and does not occur fully developed like Athena springing from the Head of Zeus.  It is an ongoing process gained from one's experiences.  To find deeper meaning in life one must be able to rise above the confines of self-centered existence and a believe that one can make a difference in the world.  One must be able to develop one's inner resources so that emotions and intellect become integrated.   This process of integration is structurally developed in Folk tales.   It mirrors cognitive, psychological, philosophical, social and moral ideas and theories familiar to most of us.  We will use the Folktales of the Grimm Brothers as a resource and concentrate on the following topics: Parenthood;   Welfare and charity;  Death, Punishment and Executions; The Psychology of Children; The Role and Function of Women and Girls; The Image of Men and Boys;  Religion, Superstition and Evil.

ETHS 390-15A:  Ethics of War:  What do Ethics Mean during a Time of War?
Christi Siver
If General Sherman was right that "war is hell," the concept of ethics seems completely irrelevant.  However, as human society has evolved, numerous politicians, philosophers, and religious figures have agreed on the need for an ethics in war, even if they have not agreed on the content of those ethics.  Students will be introduced to formal ethical frameworks and discover the dilemmas they encounter when applying these frameworks to real world situations.  Students will compare how these ethical frameworks overlap and diverge from political values.  We will debate particular dilemmas in warfare, including which authorities can declare war and when they are justified in doing so, what methods can be used in war, and what obligations both combatants and non-combatants have.  Students will work with a basic ethics text supplemented by contemporary articles outlining modern dilemmas related to ethics of war.

ETHS 390-16A:  Reading for Life
Jason Barrett
Everyone loves a good story.  Great stories can provide us with far more than mere recreation.  Stories can provide us with rich character portraits that can reveal the subtleties and nuances of what it means to live well and responsibly.  In this course we'll use novels and films to address Socrates' most basic ethical questions, "How should one live?" and "What sort of person should I be?"  We'll do so by attending to all the concrete, particular details of real life and fictional characters thoroughly embroiled in the "business of living."  Reading well offers the possibility of vicarious experience and ultimately, ethical insight. 
Our readings will include: The Crucible (Arthur Miller),
Ransom (David Malouf),
The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro),
Beloved (Toni Morrison),
Hecuba (Euripides),
How To Be Good  (Nick Hornby),
Glengarry Glen Ross (David Mamet), and
Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier).

ETHS 390-17A:  Ethics of War:  What do Ethics Mean during a Time of War?
Christi Siver
If General Sherman was right that "war is hell," the concept of ethics seems completely irrelevant.  However, as human society has evolved, numerous politicians, philosophers, and religious figures have agreed on the need for an ethics in war, even if they have not agreed on the content of those ethics.  Students will be introduced to formal ethical frameworks and discover the dilemmas they encounter when applying these frameworks to real world situations.  Students will compare how these ethical frameworks overlap and diverge from political values.  We will debate particular dilemmas in warfare, including which authorities can declare war and when they are justified in doing so, what methods can be used in war, and what obligations both combatants and non-combatants have.  Students will work with a basic ethics text supplemented by contemporary articles outlining modern dilemmas related to ethics of war.