CLAR 104  

The Good Life

Course Description:  This course will introduce students to questions about the nature of morality, major ethical theories, Roman Catholic moral reflection, contemporary and classical ethical dilemmas, and models of moral behavior and character. Students will learn basic concepts of morality and will apply these to contemporary personal and social ethical dilemmas.  They will also learn about significant moral exemplars in human history.

(Common Syllabus)

TEXTS

bulletRobert Holmes’ Basic Moral Philosophy, 2nd edition

                            or
bulletJames Rachels’ The Elements of Moral Philosophy
bulletPlato’s Republic, Book I

 
bulletA novel, biography, or autobiography of the student’s choice from among suggestions given below or pre-approved by the professor.

Course Requirements:

Students must complete two tests, one on major ethical theories and Book I of Plato’s Republic, and one on major ethical concepts and Plato’s Crito or Plato’s Euthyphro. They must also complete two cooperative learning projects with a group – that is, two one-thousand word essays defending a particular position on a contemporary ethical or social problem. They must complete in preparation for these group projects two five hundred word position papers, each adopting a particular position on a contemporary ethical or social issue. They must complete a one-thousand word essay on a major moral figure in human history. Each student must also make a formal presentation – either (1) participating as a representative of their group in a debate on contemporary ethical or social problem or (2) summarizing orally one’s readings on a major moral figure in human history.

Grading:

Each test will count for twenty per cent of a student's final average (for a total of 40%). The formal presentation will count for ten per cent of one's final average (10%). Each position paper (2 of them) and each group paper (2 of them) will count for ten per cent of a student's final average (for a total of 40%). The thousand-word essay on a moral figure will also count for ten per cent of a student's final average (10%). That totals one hundred per cent (100%).

Weeks one through four:

Introduction to major ethical theories and some ethical concepts.

Readings: Book I of Plato’s Republic

                    Chapters on utilitarianism, Kantian theory, divine command theory, natural law theory, and virtue ethics

Weeks five and six:

Introduction to meta-ethical concepts

Readings: Plato’s Crito or Plato’s Euthyphro

                    Chapters on ethical relativism, ethical egoism, and psychological egoism

Weeks eight through eleven:

Debates and group preparation in class for debates on moral controversies such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, job discrimination, affirmative action, animal rights, corporate responsibility, war, hunger, poverty. The topics that will be covered each semester are to be uniform and agreed upon in advance by the professors teaching the course. The topics therefore will not be limited to those listed above. Furthermore, professors will ensure that for most of the moral controversies considered in the class, a Catholic or Franciscan point of view will be presented for analysis and discussion. This point of view will express the natural law tradition, the feminist tradition, and some virtue ethics position, or some combination of these traditions and others, but it will be a decidedly Catholic or Franciscan point of view that is offered. The Catholic or Franciscan view offered will be one of several points of view offered for each controversy examined.

Readings: Selected cases:

                    Week eight: prepare for debate during week nine
                    Week nine: each group will debate one moral or social issue with another group in front of the class
                    Week ten: prepare for debate
                    Week eleven: each group will debate one moral or social issue with another group in front of the class

Weeks twelve through fourteen:

Student presentations on moral figures. Students who did not participate formally in class debates must present summaries of their one-thousand word papers on the book they selected to read. Examples of books from which students must make their selections are as follows:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

Stride Toward Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzakis

The Chosen, Chaim Potok

The Little Flowers of St. Francis

God’s Pauper: St. Francis of Assisi, Nikos Kazantzakis

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

Hammer of Justice: Molly Rush and the Plowshares Eight. Liane Ellison Norman

Of Human Bondage. Somerset Maugham

The Razor’s Edge, Somerset Maugham

In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter, Gordon Zahn

One of the goals of the ethical foundations core area is to provide students with exposure to major approaches to ethical reasoning. The Catholic and Franciscan traditions ethical traditions incorporate many of these approaches. The first third of this course will not necessarily address anything that is explicitly Catholic or Franciscan but will address major approaches that inform the Catholic and Franciscan traditions. The second third of the course will necessarily address controversies from a Catholic or Franciscan viewpoint, among others. And the last third of the course will allow students to select for study a Catholic or Franciscan figure, if they choose to do so.