Descriptions for ETHS 390 - Spring 2018

ETHS 390-01A:  Democracy, Freedom & Equality
Charles Wright
This course will introduce students to basic ideas about political freedom and democracy in the philosophical tradition, and then explore tensions between freedom and inequality in the contemporary United States.  These contemporary issues will include examination of constraints upon men's and women's freedom and equality that often go unchallenged in political theories and in our current democratic structures.

ETHS 390-02A:  Democracy, Freedom & Equality
Charles Wright
This course will introduce students to basic ideas about political freedom and democracy in the philosophical tradition, and then explore tensions between freedom and inequality in the contemporary United States.  These contemporary issues will include examination of constraints upon men's and women's freedom and equality that often go unchallenged in political theories and in our current democratic structures.

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:  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 390-05A:  Contemporary Moral Problems:  Lies, Sex, and Work
Kari-Shane Zimmerman
This course attends to contemporary moral problems in the following areas: lies, sex, and work. In exploring these “problem areas” of morality, it also seeks to attend to connections between them and to question whether allowing problems to drive our moral reflection is the best approach when attempting to make good moral judgments. In addition, the course will attend to the relationship between persons, virtues, and acts and between areas of morality typically considered “personal” and those considered to be “social.” The approach will be interdisciplinary, but we will accent Christian ethical approaches in the areas of lying, work, and sexuality. Also, additional course goals include (but are not limited to) enhancing students’ ability to read texts closely, both critically and charitably, as well as improving students’ ability to express themselves both orally and in writing.  

ETHS 390-06A:  20th Century Political Thought
James Read
We will focus on two different ways in which questions of justice and injustice arise in the modern world: on matters of distribution; and on matters of recognition.  We will also examine the ethical choices we face on in this respect as citizens, voters, consumers, and members of a community.  If the market produces great inequalities of wealth and political power, should those inequalities be limited through redistributive taxation, or left alone?  Do laws restricting certain market transactions between consenting parties (like prostitution and surrogate pregnancy) prevent injustice?  Or do they worsen it?  Should we ban and/or boycott goods produced by child labor in impoverished countries?  These questions involve ethical choice with respect to economic distribution and the operations of the market, and we face them every time we vote, or debate about tax policy, or purchase clothing.

They also involve arguments about whether and in what way justice requires recognition of someone's ethnic, racial, sexual, religious, or national identity.  Advocates of same-sex marriage rights, for example, do not seek a redistribution of wealth but instead changes in the way their fellow citizens talk about, think about, and publicly recognize same-sex relationships.  When Muslim women and girls wear veils or head scarves in public places, is this an affirmation of religious freedom and cultural heritage, or a badge of women's oppression?  Does celebrating one's own ethnic or national identify necessarily involve denigrating or ignoring the identity of another group or nation?  Identity politics can become especially fierce when each group perceives the other's identity as a threat to its own.  Arguments against child labor, for example, target not only low wages and poverty, but also the harmful ways in which the practice damages a developing child's sense of personal identity and social status.  Whether employers offer an employee's same-sex partner the same health care and retirement benefits that it offers other married employees involves questions of both distribution and recognition.

ETHS 390-07A:  War & the Memory of War
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 the 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 wars of genocide in our time, Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the “war on terrorism.”

ETHS 390-08A:  Others
Anthony Cunningham
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 390-09A:  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 390-10A:  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:  Sex, Death & Ethics
Scott Johnson
Most students enjoy talking about sex (outside of class), haven't thought much yet about death, and are rather upset that a course on ethics is even required.  Since the first seems amusing and the second far away, this class might seem like a pleasant way to satisfy an onerous requirement.  So admit it, you just read this description because of the title.  And you think since it meets once a week on a Wednesday night, it shouldn't interfere too much with the rest of your week.  Be warned, however, this is a real class with difficult readings as well as a final paper graded on both style and content.  It requires regular attendance, active participation, and weekly reflection on the reading.

This course will consider Sex, Death, and Ethics, consistent with the guidelines for Ethics Common Seminar.  Abortion is only one area where the three interrelate.  But isn't there really only one answer to the question of abortion?  Why should a pro-choice president be allowed to speak at a pro-life university?  Can abortion be discussed at the dinner table or in a classroom without parents becoming worried and suspicious?  If we don't talk about abortion somewhere, how will we know that our moral judgments are consciously elected and defensibly maintained?  And if we can't talk about this subject, how can we claim to account for a variety of other moral views which easily compare with ours on abortion?

There is more to Sex, Death, and Ethics than simply abortion.  We will investigate euthanasia, AIDS, stripping, prostitution, and promiscuity.  We will read plays as well as textbooks, memoirs, and some short fiction.  You will need to watch several films outside of class.  We will ask more questions that we will answer, but we will also develop our critical thinking skills with essentially contested concepts.  There are no preconceived answers to the questions we will ask.   Our task, properly stated, is to learn how to ask and assess those questions which may turn out to have uncertain answers.  Ethics is the study of how we should live, and questions about these topics are vitally important.  This is a difficult class that will repay your investment.

 

HONR 390C-01A:  Reading for Life
Anthony Cunningham
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),
The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro),
Beloved (Toni Morrison),
How To Be Good  (Nick Hornby),
Glengarry Glen Ross (David Mamet), Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier), and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Anthony Marra).  Open only to Honors Students.

JAPN 330C-01A:  Nuclear Japan: Atomic Bombs, Atomic Energy, Atomic Art
Jeffrey DuBois
This course explores literary, film, and artistic representations of Japan's nuclear past from Hiroshima to Fukushima and today.  While we consider the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on one hand, and the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima following the triple disaster of March 11, 2011 on the other in their respective specificities, the class also looks for points of convergence and divergence between the understanding of atomic weapons and atomic energy in the imagination of Japan and the world.  We look at witness narratives in short story and novel form; dramatic films depicting nuclear issues from Godzilla to the 2012 film Land of Hope, the first feature length film to depict life after the fallout of a nuclear power plant; we traverse through manga, anime, photography, painting, children's books, poetry, digital art and more to gain insight into the possibilities for expression and representation in the atomic age.  We will discuss and debate the ethical arguments behind the decision to drop the atomic bombs, the ethical dilemmas posed by nuclear energy, and the ethics of representing the victimhood of others in art.

PHI 321-01A:  Moral Philosophy
Stephen Wagner
The meaning of rights and responsibilities, virtues and vices, values and obligations. Questions of good and evil, right and wrong, freedom and determinism. Natural law, utilitarianism and other systematic theories of morally right behavior.

PHI 327-01A:  Existential Ethics
Dennis Beach
Existentialism, a 20th century philosophy with roots in the 19th century and various developments in post-modern thought, rejects all foundational givens except the raw fact of existence. This means that it rejects ethical traditions grounded in religion, in reason, in “virtues,” in particular theories of human nature, and in cultural tradition. Nevertheless, existentialist thinkers have often emerged as powerful ethical thinkers, precisely because they refuse to embrace any traditional foundations for ethics and thus keep ethical questions open for debate. We will examine existentialism’s radical critique of traditional philosophical foundations using readings from such thinkers as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and Beauvoir. As we proceed, we will explore the ethical implications of these existential currents of thought by reflecting on short pieces of literature and narratives illustrative of ethical dilemmas of modern and contemporary life.

PHI 366-01A:  Neuroethics
Emily Esch
This course will examine some of the key issues in the relatively new interdisciplinary filed of neuroethics.  You will acquire a basic understanding of neuroscience and the contemporary ethical implications arising from this field. Among other topics, we will investigate questions about the justice of using neuroimaging in the legal system, the ethical implications of cognitive enhancement drugs, and how advancements in neuroscience research and technology are changing the ways we think about personhood and the self.