Ethics Immersion
Overview for Ethics Immersion
The ethics immersion teaches students to identify and critically consider ethical issues on both the theoretical and applied levels, including contemporary issues related to artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Students gain insights into how ethical problems can emerge from complex social structures and learn how strategic changes in these structures can help prevent ethical dilemmas.
Notes about this immersion:
- Immersions are a series of three related general education courses and are intended to provide opportunities for learning outside of a student’s major area. Immersions may be in areas that will complement a student’s program but may not overlap with program requirements.
- This immersion is closed to students majoring in philosophy.
- Students are required to take one of the required courses. If students take one of these courses, they will choose two elective courses to complete the immersion. If they choose both of these courses students will choose one additional elective.
- Students are required to complete at least two courses at the 300-level or above as part of the immersion.
The plan code for Ethics Immersion is ETHICS-IM.
Curriculum for 2024-2025 for Ethics Immersion
Current Students: See Curriculum Requirements
| Course | |
|---|---|
| Required Course | |
| Choose one of the following:* | |
| PHIL-202 | Foundations of Moral Philosophy This course is a survey of foundational, and normative, approaches to moral philosophy and their motivating moral questions. Topics will include virtue ethics, deontology, consequentialism, and other approaches. Some of the questions to be examined are: How is human nature related to morality? What are the grounds for moral obligations? Is there an ultimate moral principle? How do we reason about what to do? Can reason determine how we ought to live? What are moral judgments? Are there universal goods? What constitutes a morally worthwhile life? Can morality itself be challenged? Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| PHIL-415 | Ethical Theory This course examines the theoretical basis of ethics and morality, namely the theoretical commitments that enter into any judgment that a particular action is right or wrong, with special emphasis on a particular thinker or theoretical approach. Topics may include different ways of understanding the concepts of right and wrong; the existence or non-existence of moral facts; different criteria of moral actions; different conceptions of the good life. (Prerequisites: Completion of one course in philosophy is required.) Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| Electives | |
| Choose two of the following:† | |
| MGMT-340 | Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility This course applies concepts of ethics to business at the macro level and at the micro level. At the macro level the course examines competing business ideologies exploring the ethical concerns of capitalism as well as the role of business in society. At the micro level the course examines the role of the manager in establishing an ethical climate with an emphasis on the development of ethical leadership in business organizations. The following topics are typically discussed: the stakeholder theory of the firm, corporate governance, marketing and advertising ethics, the rights and responsibilities of employees, product safety, ethical reasoning, business's responsibility to the environment, moving from a culture of compliance to a culture of integrity, and ethical leadership. (This class is restricted to undergraduate students with at least 2nd year standing.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring). |
| PHIL-202 | Foundation of Moral Philosophy This course is a survey of foundational, and normative, approaches to moral philosophy and their motivating moral questions. Topics will include virtue ethics, deontology, consequentialism, and other approaches. Some of the questions to be examined are: How is human nature related to morality? What are the grounds for moral obligations? Is there an ultimate moral principle? How do we reason about what to do? Can reason determine how we ought to live? What are moral judgments? Are there universal goods? What constitutes a morally worthwhile life? Can morality itself be challenged? Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| PHIL-304 | Philosophy of Law An introduction to philosophical analysis centering on the nature, extent and justification of law, the nature of legal thought, and the problems and theories of justice and the relationship between law, ethics and morality. Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PHIL-305 | Philosophy of Peace An introduction to some of the philosophical dimensions of the search for world peace, including the elements that would constitute a just and lasting peace, nations as moral entities, justice and national self-interest, force and violence, the morality of the use of force, peace-making and peace-keeping groups. Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PHIL-306 | Professional Ethics This course critically examines ethical issues that arise in professional life. The course will examine not only the general relationship between ethics and professional life but the particular consequences of ethical considerations within the student's own profession and the professions of others with whom the student must live and work. Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| PHIL-308 | Environmental Philosophy Environmental philosophy examines the ethical, metaphysical, and social justice questions surrounding human interactions with nature and the management of natural resources. This course explores the nature and source of environmental values and how environmental goals are achieved through policy decisions. We evaluate and apply philosophical and ethical theory to environmental issues such as endangered species, climate change, wilderness preservation, sustainability, and environmental justice. Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| PHIL-309 | Feminist Theory This course examines the main currents in contemporary feminist thought. Feminist theory explores the nature and effects of categories of sex and gender upon our ways of living, thinking and doing, while also challenging how gendered assumptions might shape our conceptions of identity and inquiry more generally. Different conceptions of sex and gender will be discussed, and the course will investigate how these concepts affect our lives in both concrete and symbolic ways. Special attention will be paid to how gendered assumptions color our understanding of knowledge production, experiences of embodiment and emotion, public and private activities, and the nature of ethical decision making. Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| PHIL-311 | East Asian Philosophy This course is an introduction to the origin and development of the philosophical traditions of primarily China and Japan through a consideration of selected thinkers, schools, and classic texts of Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Zen. Questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics are emphasized with reference to the nature of reality and the person, social harmony and self-realization, causality, right action, and enlightenment. Comparisons may also be made with Western philosophers, both contemporary and classical. Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PHIL-315 | Responsible Knowing What we do is connected to what we know. Acting well depends on appropriate evaluation of perception, logic, and evidence, and acting on our beliefs commits us to various ethical outcomes. In addition, understanding how our minds work and how we produce knowledge in teams and institutions can improve the reliability of what we know and can assist us in achieving ethical goals. This course develops advanced critical thinking skills and investigates how knowledge claims and value claims interact in order to shed light on the conditions that make responsible knowing possible. We will study how we produce responsible knowledge individually and collectively: from how we make ethically rational choices in our own lives to how society directs research priorities in science and technology. Topics may include: rational decision-making, cognitive bias, moral psychology, social epistemology, epistemic, and ethical relativism, risk and uncertainty, research integrity, and values in science. Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PHIL-316 | Bioethics and Society This course introduces students to some of the ethical considerations and problems that arise in the context of medical practice, biological science, health care policy, and related research. Issues that may be covered include: abortion; stem cell research; human cloning; euthanasia; informed consent; human organ procurement; health care allocation and how it is approached in various countries; bioethical concerns arising from human caused climate change and other environmental issues impacting public health concerns around the globe. Students will become familiar with the concepts and principles of bioethics while engaging with case studies and related media.
Part of the philosophy immersion, the ethics immersion, the global justice immersion, the philosophy minor, the ethics minor, and the philosophy major. May also be taken to fulfill the ethical perspective, the global perspective, or as an elective. Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PHIL-403 | Social and Political Philosophy An examination of some of the main problems of social and political philosophy through an analysis, comparison and critical examination of various views concerning the natures of individuality and society and the relations between them. (Prerequisites: Completion of one (1) course in any of the following disciplines: PHIL, POLS, SOCI, or CRIM.) Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| PHIL-407 | Philosophy of Action This course explores the three central philosophical issues of action theory: what is an action, what is an agent, and what is metaphysical freedom. The first part of the course examines the most significant theories of action and the different ways in which they characterize intentional behavior. The second part of this course explores the nature of agency. The third part of this course focuses on the classical problem of free will and its relation to moral responsibility. (Prerequisites: Completion of one course in philosophy is required.) Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PHIL-409 | Existentialism Existentialism is distinguished by its emphasis on human existence and the way its meaning is created through actions and choices. Existentialism focuses on the concept of individual freedom in an effort to respond authentically to the possibilities which life presents, emphasizing the importance of certain psychological states (e.g., anxiety, anticipation of death, fear, care, responsibility, and hope) and extreme situations in bringing us to an awareness of our radical freedom. This course will consider such philosophers and writers as Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Berdyaev, Heidegger, Jaspers, Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Beauvoir, Marcel, Buber, Ortega, and Unamuno. (Prerequisites: Completion of one course in philosophy is required.) Lecture 3 (Fall). |
| PHIL-415 | Ethical Theory This course examines the theoretical basis of ethics and morality, namely the theoretical commitments that enter into any judgment that a particular action is right or wrong, with special emphasis on a particular thinker or theoretical approach. Topics may include different ways of understanding the concepts of right and wrong; the existence or non-existence of moral facts; different criteria of moral actions; different conceptions of the good life. (Prerequisites: Completion of one course in philosophy is required.) Lecture 3 (Spring). |
| PHIL-449 | Topics in Philosophy ‡ A critical examination of issues in some area of philosophy not covered in other philosophy courses. (Prerequisites: Completion of one course in philosophy is required.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring). |
* Students may choose to complete both PHIL-202 and PHIL-405 towards the immersion, along with an additional elective.
† At least two courses must be at the 300 level or higher.
‡ Course may be used when the topic includes ethical issues.