Summer 2013 Ethics Syllabus

Syllabus

Goals of the Course

1. To understand, use, and critically evaluate standard ethical theories such as deontology, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics, as well as theories of justice, race, and ethnography.
2. To review and consider a variety of contemporary meta-ethical theories such as evolutionary ethics, moral psychology, and game theory, as well as contemporary theory of culture.
3. To develop your own view of the nature of ethics and a model for ethical analysis and decision-making.
4. To develop a view of the causes, consequences, and remedies for absolute poverty, as well as our moral obligation to provide international relief and development aid.
5. To develop a view of the causes and consequences of racial and ethnic difference and cultural dynamics that allowed historic slavery, as well as contemporary cases of child labor and slave labor. To develop critical skills for assessing human group behaviors and structure that promote group difference.

Course Description

This introductory ethics course surveys traditional ethical theories using both primary and secondary philosophical literature, and surveys major contemporary research in moral psychology, evolutionary ethics, and the application of game theory to ethics.

In this Benin version of the course, which seeks to address social justice, the focus will fall on understanding the social injustices perpetuated by political difference, relgious difference, the historic Atlantic slave trade, and underdevelopment. While we develop theoretical resources for addressing all four topics, our emphasis falls on slavery and the ethics of development.

Throughout the course we consider applied ethical problems, culminating in a focus on ethical issues in international aid and development. For theoretical background, we read selections from Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Rawls, as well as contemporary writers such as Franz de Waal (Primates and Philosophers), Jonathan Haidt, and Daniel Dennett. For development ethics we will read essays by Peter Singer and his critics, some virtue ethics, and contemporary critics and advocates of international aid, such as Sachs, Easterly, and Moyo.

Readings (selected)

Resources in Ethics and Moral Psychology

• Cooper, David. 1993. Chapter 1: Introduction to Philosophical Ethics. Value Pluralism & Ethical Choice, 1-26. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• ________. 1993. Chapter 5: Cognitive and Moral Development. Value Pluralism & Ethical Choice, 75-91. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• de Waal, Frans. 1996. Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wroong in Human and Other Animals. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP.
• Haidt, Jonathan. 2012. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Pantheon.
• Hinman, Lawrence. 2003. Chapter 8: Justice. in Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach Lawrence Hinman. United States: Tompson Wadsworth.
• Hume, David. Excerpts from Treatise on Human Nature. Morality and the Good Life: An Introduction to Ethics through Classical sources Robert Martin Clancy Vaught Wayne Solomon, 211-58.
• Rachels, James and Stuart Rachels. 2012. Chapters 6, 7, and 8: Social Contract Theory and Utilitarianism. in The Elements of Moral Philosophy James Rachels and Stuart Rachels, 82-124McGraw Hill.
• Singer, Peter. 2002. Chapter 1: A Changing World. One World Peter Singer. Australia: Yale University Press.
• Singer, Peter. 1975. Chapter 1: About Ethics. Practical Ethics, 1-15.
• ________. 1975. Chapter 2: Equality and Its Implications. Practical Ethics, 14-39.
• ________. 2002. Chapter 5: One Community. One World Peter Singer. Australia: Yale University Press.
• ________. 1975. Rich and Poor. Practical Ethics, 14-39.

Resources on Development

• Sachs, Jeffrey. Chapter 3, "Why Some Countries Fail to Thrive," and Chapter 4, "The Voiceless Dying" The End of Poverty. New York: Penguin, 2005.

• Easterly, William. Chapter 1, "Planners versus Searchers" and Chapter 8, "From Colonialism to Postmodern Imperialism," The White Man's Burden. New York: Penguin, 2006.

• Moyo, Dambisa. "Chapter 3: Aid Is Not Working." Dead Aid. Dambisa Moyo. New York: Farrar, Straus and Griroux, 2009.

• Bierschenk, Thomas. " Democratization Without Development: Benin 1989-2009." International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 22.3 (2009): 337-57.

• Howard, Neil. "Anti- Child Trafficking Policy in Southern Benin: Frustrated State-Making and Peasant Resistance.", 2011.

Resources on the Slave Trade, Child Migration, and Benin Politics

• ---. "Independent Child Migration in Southern Benin: An Ethnographic Challenge to the 'Pathological' Paradigm." Research Workshop on Independent Child and Youth Migrants, Migration DRC, University of Sussex: 2008.

• Coates, Tim. King Guezo of Dahomey 1850-52: The Abolition of the Slave Trade on the West Coast of Africa (Uncovered Editions) . London: The Stationery Office, 2001. (excerpts)

• Gardinier, David E. "The Historical Origins of Francophone Africa." Political Reform in Francophone Africa. editors John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier. Westview Press, 1997. 9-23.

• Decalo, Samuel. "Benin: First of the New Democracies." Political Reform in Francophone Africa. editors John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier. Westview Press, 1997. 43-62.

• 500 Years Later. Dir. Owen Alik Shahadah. Halaqah Films, 2009.

Schedule

Weeks 1 through 4

During the online portion of the course, which covers the first four weeks, students read and discuss online the following kinds of readings on ethical theory, moral psychology, theories of political and religious difference:

• standard readings in ethical theory and moral psychology, such as virture ethics, deonotology, utility theory, as well as contemporary theories of justice. (Cooper, de Waal, Haidt, Hinman, Hume, Rachels)
• readings related to understanding the historic Atantic slave trade, child migration and labor, and contemporary examples of slave labor. (Coates, excerpts of slave narratives, excerpts from Shahadah, "400 Years Later")
• readings on our obligations to aid, the effectiveness of aid, the problems of development in Benin. (Singer, Easterly, Moyo, Bierschenk)

During the first two weeks of the course, I will introduce the the specific concepts of social justice to be studied in the course, sharing the SJ course designation application with the course and amplifying that with course readings and discussion.

We will have journal assignments and online quizzes over material in this section of the course. Students will also be developing their service and/or research projects for the in-country portion of the course during this time.

Weeks 5 and 6

During the in-country portion of the course, students will engage in service, research, and cultural travel which develops their understanding of social justice issues in the following ways:

• students will experience the Songhai Center and its approach to development and interact with staff and interns.
• students will visit historic and cultural sites related to the Atlantic slave trade including the Dahomey Palace grounds, UNESCO Point of No Return monument and related sites
• students will visit a village level development project, and learn about numerous development projects and initiatives in Benin.
• students will amplify their reading knoweldge of the effects of absoluate poverty with more direct knowledge of the causes and consequences of endemic absolute poverty. This will take place through discussion with Beninoise contacts and narratives of life in Benin.

We continue journal assignments while in-country, but add evening discussions on social justice topics, debriefing from field experiences, and coaching for final project write-up.

Week 7 (if needed)

Students will have a major paper due at the end of the course synthesizing the four main social justice topics of the course with their in-country experience.

Assessment

Students will be assessed on their achievement of the course goals through the following methods:

• 25% Journal Assignments
• 25% Readings Test
• 20% Service and/or Research Project
• 30% Final Synthesis Paper on Social Justice