Ethics and Society (MW) 2012 Spring

WEEK/Day Activity
WEEK 1
W-1/18 Introduction – Syllabus – Blackboard – House of Life
http://getsyllab.us/
Introducing the Case Method: What Counts as an Ethical Problem?
WEEK 2
M-1/23 Books of Moses
http://bible.cc/
Rachel Adler / Engendering Judaism (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=7qsqz0oKZBAC
W-1/25 WORKSHOP: Testing Ethical Criteria.  DUE three paragraphs in MLA format.  In the first paragraph summarize the ethical case that we developed last week (or substitute a new case for deliberation).  In the second paragraph develop a compelling ethical criterion that you find either in the classic text or the modern response, using at least one direct quotation with quote marks and parenthetical citation.  In the third paragraph, show how use of that criterion would guide deliberation toward a choice of action in the ethical problem posed at last week’s forum.
WEEK 3
M-1/30 Buddhism: VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESA SUTRA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimalakirti_Sutra
see “external links” to English translations
Rita M Gross / The Dharma of Gender (pdf)
www.wilfridlaurier.ca/documents/6479/The_dharma_of.pdf
W-2/1 WORKSHOP: Problematic Situation: Due printed in MLA format.  Develop a case for ethical deliberation.  If the case includes facts of a public nature such as statistics, then please be sure to provide parenthetical citations to sources; if the facts are not of a public nature, be sure to state the relevant factual outline of the case (10 pts).  The case should be presented in such a way that a choice awaits deliberation (10 pts).  There should be at least two preliminary options for the choice (10 pts).  And the choice between preliminary options should appear to present some difficulty to ethical deliberation (20 pts).
WEEK 4
M-2/6 Plato: Symposium
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/symposium.html
Irigaray on Diotima in The Ethics of Sexual Difference (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=44ZLW3CoDYwC
Damien Casey: Luce Irigaray and the Advent of the Divine (Author’s Web Pages)
http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/dacasey/articles.html
W-2/8 WORKSHOP: Testing Ethical Criteria:  Due: Two Paragraphs in MLA format.  In the first paragraph develop a compelling ethical criterion that you find either in the classic text or the modern response for recent readings, using at least one direct quotation with quote marks and parenthetical citation (25 pts).  In the second paragraph, show how use of that criterion would guide deliberation toward a choice of action in one of the ethical problems posed at last week’s forum (25 pts).  Due Friday.
WEEK 5
M-2/13 Aristotle: Ethics, Bk VIII, Friendship
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.8.viii.html
Ruth Groenhout, “The Virtue of Care,” Ch. 7 in Feminist Interpretations of Aristotle (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=_clplh2kAvkC
W-2/15 WORKSHOP: Problematic Situation: Due printed in MLA format.  Develop a case for ethical deliberation.  If the case includes facts of a public nature such as statistics, then please be sure to provide parenthetical citations to sources; if the facts are not of a public nature, be sure to state the relevant factual outline of the case (10 pts).  The case should be presented in such a way that a choice awaits deliberation (10 pts).  There should be at least two preliminary options for the choice (10 pts).  And the choice between preliminary options should appear to present some difficulty to ethical deliberation (20 pts).
WEEK 6
M-2/20 Aquinas: Virtues
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3.htm
Susanne Marie DeCrane, Aquinas, feminism, and the common good (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=Mh1BSl7YkDYC
W-2/22 WORKSHOP: Testing Ethical Criteria:  Due: Two Paragraphs in MLA format.  In the first paragraph develop a compelling ethical criterion that you find either in the classic text or the modern response for recent readings, using at least one direct quotation with quote marks and parenthetical citation (25 pts).  In the second paragraph, show how use of that criterion would guide deliberation toward a choice of action in one of the ethical problems posed at last week’s forum (25 pts).  Due Friday.
WEEK 7
M-2/27 Hobbes: Leviathan (Ch. 13-18)
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3207
Jane Flax, “The Patriarchal Unconscious” in Harding & Hintikka, Discovering Reality (Google Book,  p. 261)
http://books.google.com/books?id=gpGu-Xqx7bgC
Above reference to Flax appears to have been blocked by Google Books. As an alternative please access your library electronic databases and search for: Green, Karen. “Christine De Pisan And Thomas Hobbes.” Philosophical Quarterly 44.177 (1994): 456-475.
W-2/29 WORKSHOP: Problematic Situation: Due printed in MLA format.  Develop a case for ethical deliberation.  If the case includes facts of a public nature such as statistics, then please be sure to provide parenthetical citations to sources; if the facts are not of a public nature, be sure to state the relevant factual outline of the case (10 pts).  The case should be presented in such a way that a choice awaits deliberation (10 pts).  There should be at least two preliminary options for the choice (10 pts).  And the choice between preliminary options should appear to present some difficulty to ethical deliberation (20 pts).
WEEK 8
M-3/5 Spinoza: Ethics (Part IV, keyword: joy)
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~rbombard/RB/Spinoza/ethica4.html
Rosi Braidotti, Transpositions: on nomadic ethics (Google Book, “Spinoza Revisited”) — also Google “philosophical nomadism”
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSmwVs99P3QC
W-3/7 WORKSHOP: Testing Ethical Criteria:  Due: Two Paragraphs in MLA format.  In the first paragraph develop a compelling ethical criterion that you find either in the classic text or the modern response for recent readings, using at least one direct quotation with quote marks and parenthetical citation (25 pts).  In the second paragraph, show how use of that criterion would guide deliberation toward a choice of action in one of the ethical problems posed at last week’s forum (25 pts).  Due Friday.
SPRING BREAK
WEEK 9
M-3/19 Hume’s Utility (See Treatise, Bk III of Morals)
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4705
Christine Swanton, “Compassion as a Virtue in Hume” or Jacqueline Taylor, “Hume and the Reality of Value” in Feminist Interpretations of David Hume (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=vwCX5kJ_CVkC
W-3/21 WORKSHOP: Problematic Situation: Due printed in MLA format.  Develop a case for ethical deliberation.  If the case includes facts of a public nature such as statistics, then please be sure to provide parenthetical citations to sources; if the facts are not of a public nature, be sure to state the relevant factual outline of the case (10 pts).  The case should be presented in such a way that a choice awaits deliberation (10 pts).  There should be at least two preliminary options for the choice (10 pts).  And the choice between preliminary options should appear to present some difficulty to ethical deliberation (20 pts).
WEEK 10
M-2/26 Kant: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantmeta/
Herta Nagl-Docekal, “Feminist Ethics: How it Could Benefit from Kant’s Moral Philosophy” in Feminist Interpretations of Immanuel Kant (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ah2LMcR-LLQC
W-3/28 WORKSHOP: Testing Ethical Criteria:  Due: Two Paragraphs in MLA format.  In the first paragraph develop a compelling ethical criterion that you find either in the classic text or the modern response for recent readings, using at least one direct quotation with quote marks and parenthetical citation (25 pts).  In the second paragraph, show how use of that criterion would guide deliberation toward a choice of action in one of the ethical problems posed at last week’s forum (25 pts).  Due Friday.
WEEK 11
M-4/2 Hegel: Self-consciousness and the Master-Slave dialectic
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/ph/phba.htm
Debbie Evans, “Sartre and Beauvoir on Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic and the Question of the ‘Look’” in Beauvoir and Sartre: the riddle of influence (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=LUVIOSwVWhEC
W-4/4 WORKSHOP: Problematic Situation: Due printed in MLA format.  Develop a case for ethical deliberation.  If the case includes facts of a public nature such as statistics, then please be sure to provide parenthetical citations to sources; if the facts are not of a public nature, be sure to state the relevant factual outline of the case (10 pts).  The case should be presented in such a way that a choice awaits deliberation (10 pts).  There should be at least two preliminary options for the choice (10 pts).  And the choice between preliminary options should appear to present some difficulty to ethical deliberation (20 pts).
WEEK 12
M-4/9 Kierkegaard: To Will One Thing (Ch. 13)
http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2523&C=2399
Sylvia Walsh, “Living Christianly” (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=qJLy6EGv3NgC
W-4/11 WORKSHOP: Testing Ethical Criteria:  Due: Two Paragraphs in MLA format.  In the first paragraph develop a compelling ethical criterion that you find either in the classic text or the modern response for recent readings, using at least one direct quotation with quote marks and parenthetical citation (25 pts).  In the second paragraph, show how use of that criterion would guide deliberation toward a choice of action in one of the ethical problems posed at last week’s forum (25 pts).  Due Friday.
WEEK 13
M-4/16 Marx: Theses on Feuerbach, German Ideology (1A)
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01.htm
Sabine Gurtler, “The Ethical Dimension of Work: A Feminist Perspective,” Hypatia: A Journal Of Feminist Philosophy 20.2 (2005): 119-134.
Access Library Database
W-4/18 WORKSHOP: Problematic Situation: Due printed in MLA format.  Develop a case for ethical deliberation.  If the case includes facts of a public nature such as statistics, then please be sure to provide parenthetical citations to sources; if the facts are not of a public nature, be sure to state the relevant factual outline of the case (10 pts).  The case should be presented in such a way that a choice awaits deliberation (10 pts).  There should be at least two preliminary options for the choice (10 pts).  And the choice between preliminary options should appear to present some difficulty to ethical deliberation (20 pts).
WEEK 14
M-4/23 Nietzsche: Zarathustra, Genealogy of Morals
http://philosophy.eserver.org/nietzsche-zarathustra.txt
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/nietzsche/genealogytofc.htm
Judith Butler, “Circuits of Bad Conscience,” in The Psychic Life of Power (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=XuJlkAMjQK4C
Rosalyn Diprose, “Nietzsche and the Pathos of Distance,” in Corporeal Generosity (Google Book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=qhtejVr_g7YC
W-4/25 WORKSHOP: Testing Ethical Criteria:  Due: Two Paragraphs in MLA format.  In the first paragraph develop a compelling ethical criterion that you find either in the classic text or the modern response for recent readings, using at least one direct quotation with quote marks and parenthetical citation (25 pts).  In the second paragraph, show how use of that criterion would guide deliberation toward a choice of action in one of the ethical problems posed at last week’s forum (25 pts).  Due Friday.
WEEK 15
M-4/30 James: Will to Believe, Varieties of Religious Experience (Gutenberg)
W-5/2 DRAFT WORKSHOP for FINAL
WEEK 16
Final Paper.  DUE in hard copy at instructor’s office hours (NOT departmental office) either Mon or Wed (no late work accepted after Wed; letter grade penalty for submitting to departmental staff): Four Pages in MLA format.  One page situation (as practiced in examples above); one page developing criteria from scholarly sources (as practiced above); one paged developing a criterion of your own; one page of deliberation, considering the criteria developed (as practiced above). (50 points per paragraph)