PHIL 163.001 – Practical Ethics

Instructor: Molly Gardner. This course meets TR 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. in PH 328.

When, if ever, is it morally permissible to have an abortion? How ought we to treat nonhuman animals? Is the death penalty a just punishment for first-degree murder? The goal of this course is to equip you with the philosophical methodology and the information you will need in order to make productive contributions to debates about these and other issues. We will begin with a look at the methods of philosophy, and then we will consider some of the major ethical theories including utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. We will then proceed to critically examine the literature on a variety of issues including abortion, animal ethics, environmental ethics, the death penalty, and economic justice.