Ethics

Ethics Course Wiki

(This is a section students often contribute to by noticing ethical issues and articles about values that they find important.)

Possible topic: Offensive speech and the Charlie Hebdot massacre: Attend a lecture by my colleague Dr. Charles Lassiter, Wednesday, April 15 at 4:30 pm in College Hall 101, a student and I will be giving a talk titled, "Je Suis Charlie? Hate Speech, Marginalizing Speech, and Offensive Speech."

Possible topic: "Human Rights and Climate Change in a Globalized 21st Century." The four panelists are Justice Debra Stephens, of the Washington State Supreme Court, Dr. Kishor Uprety, Senior Counsel at the Legal Department of the World Bank, Rachael Paschal-Osborn, Executive Director at the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and Anastasia Telesetsky, Associate Professor at the University of Idaho School of Law. They will be discussing various topics relating to international and environmental law, including water and human rights issues. This event is this Thursday, April 16th, from 5:00-7:00pm at the law school in room 143. All of you and anyone else who is interested are invited, and I am hoping that by contacting you about this, you will be able to tell your classes about this and encourage them to attend.

Review of a recent book by biologist David Sloan Wilson on group selection and altruism. [3]

The Stone is a regular philosophy column in the NYT on Tuesdays. Here's a recent one on "facts vs. opinions" [4]

A student sent in this link to a video on consciousness. Pretty good panelists [7]

Visit the site Your Morals. org and take one or two of the surveys. Write a journal entry about it.

"The following letter is Eco’s reply to a question the cardinal had asked him: “What is the basis of the certainty and necessity for moral action of those who, in order to establish the absolute nature of an ethic, do not intend to appeal to metaphysical principles or transcendental values, or even to universally valid categorical imperatives?”"

New Yorker article on "Biology of Violence," [9] suggesting that criminal subcultures are following "legitimate" evolutionary strategies.

Here is a link giving a synopsis of the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It is about how people can make choices within the blink of an eye. This kind of relates to the "elephant" we have been discussing in class.

Additionally, I have posted a link to the book Think by Michael LeGault. It is a counterargument to Gladwell's Blink discussing why serious decisions cannot be made quickly - "the rider" so to speak.