ETHICS 100D
The Challenges of Living an Ethical Life

Instructor: Ruth Grant

The course is framed by a number of familiar but fundamental ethical questions: What is a good, just and worthy life? How is it to be lived and among whom and by engaging in what sorts of activities? What is the relationship between politics and morality or ethics and power? What are the differences between morality and moralism, ethical responsibility and irresponsibility? In what ways and to what degree are human beings independent actors and to what degree are they shaped by forces outside their control and consciousness? Are violence and war, lying and deception ever justified? When and how? To what extent are we captured by the particular circumstances of our lives and to what extent can we develop more capacious understandings of citizenship and community? How do issues of race, class and gender shape what we mean by a moral life, and who can or should live it?
(Ethics 100D is the gateway course for the Ethics Certificate Program.)

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ETHICS 200
Research Seminar in Ethics
(Spring 2010)

Two sections of Ethics 200 are being offered this semester.

“Crime and Punishment”

Instructor: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

In this course, students read and discuss recent work on crime and punishment, including debates about the death penalty.  During the course, students write a book comprised of individual chapters written by them using the tools and training reflected in their chosen majors.  Collectively, the chapters provide disciplinary perspectives that reflect the complex ethical, cultural and political problems of crime and punishment.

“Markets and Moral Order”

Instructor: Kieran Healy

This course examines the relationship between the institution of the market and the moral order of society.  The market has variously been seen as a civilizing force, a corrosive influence on character, a seedbed of personal virtue, an engine of spite and envy, the foundation of individual freedom, a juggernaut that destroys everything in its path, and a thin reed in need of just the right mix of cultural values and social organization to survive. Students read the social theory of the market, drawing on sources in philosophy, politics, history, economics, and sociology  The emphasis is on work that is both theoretically innovative and empirically grounded.

(Ethics 200 is the capstone course for the Ethics Certificate Program.)

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ETHICS 180-01/CULTANTH 180-04
Special Topics in Ethics: Anthropology and Ethics
(Spring 2010)

Instructor: Aaron Thornburg
2009-2010 Kenan Instructorship in Ethics recipient

This course addresses ethical issues and debates within the anthropological subdisciplines of Archaeology, Biological Anthropology (including Primatology), Cultural Anthropology/Ethnography, and Visual Anthropology.  By investigating anthropological ethics in its multiple (but not unrelated) manifestations, the course provides an opportunity for students to learn more about ethics through the lens of discussions and debates emanating from this holistic and ethically embattled field that have bearing on cognate disciplines and the study of the field of ethics in general.

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ETHICS 280S / GLHLTH 279S
Refugees: Global Health and Ethics
(Fall 2009)

Instructor: Fiona Terry

This seminar examined the ethical and global health challenges posed by refugees and internally displaced persons in the contemporary era.

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ETHICS 202S
Organizations in Crisis
(Fall 2008)

Instructors: Noah Pickus, Suzanne Shanahan

Course Description: This course examined the causes and consequences of ethical crisis across business, military, higher education and religious institutions and introduces students to different perspectives and traditions to make sense of organizations and their ethical culture. It focused on contending conceptions of ethics and the meaning of ethical crisis, on why certain organizations are more prone to ethical problems, and on why certain organizations are better able to manage them.