Syllabus
Meeting:
Time: Wednesdays, 7pm-9.50pm
Location: McManus 33
Instructor:
Masahiro Yamada (page at CGU)
email: masahiro.yamada@cgu.edu
phone: 909.607.0471
Office Hours: Tuesdays 10-12 or by appointment
Course Description:
The first part of this course will be dealing with meta-ethical questions concerning the nature of ethics. Are there ethical facts? Are they objective? Do they depend in any interesting ways on us? The second part of the course will be devoted to some of the important substantive ethical theories, especially utilitarianism and Kantian deontology.
Required texts:
- Darwall, S., Philosophical Ethics
- Kant, I., Groundworks of the Metaphysics of Morals
Additional material will be made available for download. See the readings page.
Weekly Requirements:
Participation is expected and encouraged. Occasionally (often), the reading assignment for the week will be accompanied by some questions on the reading. Students must answer them in writing and hand them in.
Papers:
Students are required to write two papers. The first is due at the beginning of class of week 9. The final is due December 20, 2006. For the first paper, students will be given a choice of topics. For the final paper, each student must choose an article (not included in the reading material) that deals with some issue covered and critically discuss it. Students must confer with the instructor before writing the paper.
Grading Policy:
In order to pass this course, a student must submit all the assignments and both papers. Once all required items are submitted, a raw grade will be determined as the average of the two papers. This raw grade will then be tweaked up or down depending on: the quality of the other assignments, change of performance over the semester, participation.
