INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS

PHIL 2110: SPRING 2001

Bob Corbett, instructor

MEETS: 1 - 3 P.M.
MONDAY AND THURSDAY

BELOW YOU WILL FIND INFORMATION ON:

• Course Objectives
• Readings
• Syllabus
• Course Requirements and Grading

• Course Objectives (short version).

  Philosophical Ethics is the study of moral philosophy from a philosophical perspective. This approach is quite different from either a religious perspective or the common sense view, both views are ones more familiar to students. Philosophical ethics is committed to the tools and perspective of reason. What, asks the philosophers, can reason tell us about the moral life? Philosophical ethics is not so much about particular moral issues as the methods and fundamental principles of ethics. The course does NOT assume that the student knows much about philosophy, but that one is willing to work within this particular perspective.

• Readings
  • We will read from one main text: MORAL PHILOSOPHY: THEORIES & ISSUES written by Emmett Barcalow. 2nd edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1998. ISBN: 0-534-52645-4.
  • Corbett will post readings on Existentialist Ethics onto his web site. One will be selections from Simone de Beauvoir's THE ETHICS OF AMBIGUITY. The second will be an essay of Corbett's on this topic.

• The Syllabus

• Course Requirements and Grading

  Specific course requirements will be:

  1. Regular attendance is expected. Missing excessive classes will be penalized.
  2. Daily short quizzes on the assigned readings for that class.
  3. Six ONE-PAGE papers.
  4. Class participation.
  5. Final exam.

  Grading: While I will grade each individual assignment, the grade of the course will not be mere the sum of the individual grades. Rather, I will take into account an overall sense of quality in the general tone of one's work. However, the sum of one's individual grades will certainly be a strong indication of where one stands. In a rough sense the assigments will be valued in this fashion:

  Grading

  • Attendance: This will be only a negative possibility. You begin will full credit.
    • If you miss more than 2 class your grade will be lowered one full letter grade.
    • If you miss more than 3 classes your grade will be lowered two full letter grades.
    • If you miss more than 4 classes your grade will be lowered three full letter grades.
    • If you miss 6 classes you will receive a grade of F.
  • General work required and graded
    • Sum of the daily quizzes: 25%
    • Class participation: 15%
    • Sum of 6 one-page papers: 30%
    • final exam: 30%
    • total:
    • ......................100%

    Four important additional notes:

    1. 13 very short quizzes will be given at the outset of each class which has assigned readings. Each quiz will be given exactly as the class begins for a very few minutes and is worth 10 points. The best 10 scores of the 13 will be used for grading, the worst 3 will drop out. These quizzes have two purposes:
       • To get students to class on-time.
       • To encourage students to do the reading with care.
       Under no circumstances will quiz times be extended more than about 10 minutes maximum, and no quizzes may be taken except at the beginning of the class in question.
    2. I will only give a grade of incomplete in a very unusual circumstance, one in which the student was doing all work in a timely and acceptable fashion and then some major catastrophe strikes, one for which the student can give evidence of and which is seriously debilitating. Even then, an incomplete would be negotiated toward the shortest reasonable time to fulfill the work with no extensions. In only the rarest occasions would a grade for a fulfilled incomplete ever be higher than a C.
    3. Alternative grading procedure is possible:  Were any student unhappy with the above grading procedure, the student is welcome to begin discussion with Corbett toward forming an alternative grading procedure. This would take an initial discussion with the Corbett which would be initiated by the student. Were an agreement reached then the student has the responsibility to write up the new grading contract and have it signed by both Corbett and the student. Such a contract would have to be signed and finished, and a copy given to Corbett, before the third week of classes had ended.
    4. A statement on plagiarism. Plag1arism is turning in any written work as one's own which was written by someone else. This is a completely unacceptable behavior in the academic world and is counted as a clear case of cheating. Any student caught plagiarizing in this class will be given an F for the entire course. No second chances will be given. The policy is firm and absolute.

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