Lahore University of Management Sciences
PHIL 221 – Ethics, Values & Society
Spring 2010-11
Instructor: Dr. Ghazala Irfan
Office: 239-B Old HSS Wing
Office hours: **** or by appointment
E-mail: [email protected]
Course Description
This course comprises mostly primary and some secondary readings from the AngloAmerican and Continental Ethical Traditions. The underlying assumption is that there is
no substitute for original source materials. It will take on a Direct Problem approach.
Module I will deal with Values in Society. Alternative perspectives in moral philosophy
shall be highlighted. Module II shall deal with Normative Ethics and Module III with
Applied Ethics. Module IV shall consist entirely of application of theoretical models to
the Pakistani Situation. Students shall be expected to make oral presentations in a group
and deliberate on dilemmas facing the Pakistani society. Module V discusses Meta-Ethics
and the problem of justification.
Goals
The objective of the course is to introduce students to moral concepts and ethical
discourse. Ethical dilemmas need to be resolved within society. The students shall be
encouraged to analyze their own value-assumptions and critically examine traditionally
inherited solutions. They shall be required to evaluate the relevance and applicability of
this ethical perspective to their own life, community and society.
1. The first module focuses on Social Issues and the development and need to identify the
origin and source of Ethics and Values. Evaluative judgments of Contemporary
Ethical Dilemmas and Issues are encouraged. It will emphasize the clarification and
debate of problems so that students are obliged to offer remedial measures.
2. The second module will deal with Normative Ethics. It aims to provide an examination
of ethical frameworks. The aim is to widen horizons by exposure to alternative
solutions through time and through different Anglo American & Continental
traditions.
3. The third module focuses on applied ethics especially the environment, business,
science and technology, Bio-ethics and the justice or not of affirmative action in
society.
4. The fourth module deals with the question of whether ideals exist only in a perfect
world and whether concepts exist only as theoretical constructs incapable of being
translated into the real world. Thus, this module seeks to understand the world that we
live in. This shall be an important participatory exercise. The specific intent will be to
inculcate a sense of responsibility to themselves and toward society by assessing
Ethical themes prevalent within the Pakistani context.
5. The fifth module focuses on Meta-ethics. Clarification and elucidation of concepts and
arguments is sought. The goal is to be able to question, to de-dogmatize and to
resolve these judgments within the existing framework of linguistic analysis.
Pre-Requisite
Introduction to Philosophy would be useful.
Lectures & Tutorials
There will be forty two contact sessions including three term tests, one group project
comprising of oral presentations (which will take 2 or 3 sessions depending on class size)
and one final exam (scheduled outside of class time). The Term Tests will be held during
three periods (not counted in the course outline).
Grading: Relative
Class participation: 5%
Attendance and Punctuality: 5% (Absence means losing marks on both C.P. and
attendance)
Term tests (3) - Open book/ open notes 45%
Oral Group Project (collective grading): 15%
Final Exam – Open book/ open notes: 30%
Module I: Values in Society
1. Introduction and Methodology of the course
a. Ethics
b. Values
pp. 100-120 Kolak & Martin
2. Source of Values: Religion and Culture
a. The Analects (Confucius) pp. 628-629 Bowle, Michaels and Solomon
b. The Ten Commandments
pp. 625-628 Bowle, Michaels and Solomon
c. The Sermon on the Mount
d. Why am I not a Christian (Russell)
pp. 625-628 Bowle, Michaels
and Solomon
pp. 22-30 Bowle, Michaels and Solomon
e. The Last Sermon of Prophet Muhammed
http://www.everything2.com
f. Bad influence of popular religion on morality
Section XIV The Natural
History of Religion. David
Hume.
3. Stages of Moral Development (Kohlberg)
pp. 630-646 The Journal of
Philosophy
Individualism versus Altruism
4. Self Interest (Hobbes)
pp. 71-75 Donaldson & Werhane
5. Benevolence (Butler)
pp. 75-83 Donaldson & Werhane
Authority versus Freedom
6. Duty to the State (Plato)
7a. The Private Domain (Mill)
Friquegnon
7b. The Autonomy of Conscience (Wolff)
pp. 389-399 Abelson & Friquegnon
pp. 400-415 Abelson &
pp. 416-421 Abelson & Friquegnon
Law and Morals
8. The Need for Enforcement (Devlin)
pp. 371-380 Abelson & Friquegnon
9. The Need for Tolerance (Hart)
pp. 381-387 Abelson & Friquegnon
Social Justice
10. Individual Liberty (Hayek)
Friquegnon
11. Equality (Harrington)
Term Test I
pp. 423-436 Abelson &
pp. 458-471 Abelson & Friquegnon
Module II: Normative Ethics
12. Ethics, Nature and Scope
pp. 5-17 Donaldson & Werhane
13. Deontology
The Categorical Imperative (Kant)
pp. 678-690 Stumpf
14 What makes Right Acts Right? (Ross)
pp. 19-36 Ross
15. Basing Ethics on Human Nature (Aristotle)
pp. 659-668 Stumpf
16. Teleology
The Utilitarian Calculus of Pain and Pleasure
(Mill)
pp. 691-705 (Stumpf)
17 Turning Values Upside Down (Nietzsche)
Term Test II
pp. 706-715 (Stumpf)
Module III: Applied Ethics
Life and Death
18. Introduction
pp. 130-151 MacKinnon
Wrongfulness of Euthanasia (Gay-Williams)
Active and Passive Euthanasia (Rachels)
19. Introduction
pp. 163-192 MacKinnon
A defense of abortion (Thomson)
Abortion and the sexual agenda (Callahan)
Environmental Ethics
20. Anthropocentricism
pp. 356-361 Abelson & Friquegnon
21. Ecocentrism
pp. 361-367 Abelson & Friquegnon
Affirmative Action
22. Discrimination (Gross)
pp. 336-352 MacKinnon
23. Justice of Affirmative Action (Dwakin)
pp. 353-370 MacKinnon
Business Ethics
24a. Benefits of the Profit Motive (Smith)
pp. 201-206 Donaldson & Werhane
24b.Profits before Ethics (Friedman)
pp. 318-324 Donaldson & Werhane
25. a.Ethics before Profits (Holmes)
pp. 325-334 Donaldson & Werhane
b. Markets and Morals (Sandel)
pp.3-10 Reith Lectures 2009
BBC Radio 4
Applied Science and Technology
26. Computers and Society (Rogerson)
27. Conservation of Values: Ethical Dilemmas
(Rogerson)
Term Test III
pp. 159-168 Spier
pp. 168-179 Spier
Module IV: The Pakistani Context
28. Corruption in Pakistan
pp. 243-252 Siddiqa
29. Sexual Harassment at the Workplace
LUMS/ Wilfrid Laurier
University Canada
30. Plagiarism in Academia
LUMS/ HEC
Presentations: 2/3 sessions (depending on class size)
[Extra Reading]
Liberty & Equality (Rawls)
pp. 437-457 Abelson & Friquegnon
Module V: Meta-Ethics
31. Validation and Vindication (Feigl)
Hospers
pp. 667-680 Sellars and
32. Prolegomena to a Theory of the Moral Criterion pp. 631-644 Sellars and Hospers
(Campbell)
33. Moral and Non-moral Values (Campbell)
Hospers
pp. 340-362 Sellars and
34. Is there a Characteristically Feminine Voice
Defining Morality? (Gilligan)
pp. 196-201
35. Feminist Transformations of Moral
Theory (Held)
36. The Indefinability of Good (Moore)
Final Exam
pp. 321-344
pp. 63-91 Sellars and Hospers
Readings:
1.
Abelson, Raziel and Friquegnon, Marie-Lousie. Ethics for Modern Life, 2nd edition.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982.
2.
Donaldson, Thomas & Werhane, Patricia. Ethical Issues in Business: A
Philosophical Aroach. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1983.
3.
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
4.
Hume, David. The Natural History of Religion. London: A. and H. Bradlaugh
Bonner, 1889.
5.
Kolak, David and Martin, Raymond. Wisdom without Answers. Belmont:
Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1991.
6.
MacKinnon, Barbara. Ethics: Theories and Contemporary Issues. San Francisco:
Wordsworth, 2001.
7.
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Volume 50, Issue Sulement (Autumn,
1990)@jstor.org.
8.
Ross, W.D. The Right and the Good, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950
9.
Sellars, Wilfrid and Hospers, John. Readings in Ethical Theory. New York: Aleton
Century - Crofts Inc. 1952.
10.
Singer, Peter. A Companion to Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993.
11.
Spier, Raymond E. Science and Technology. London: Routledge, 2002.
12.
Stumpf, Samuel Enoch. Philosophy: History And Problems. Singapore: McGrawHill Book Company, 1989.
13.
The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 70, No. 18, Seventieth Annual Meeting of the
American Philosophical Association Eastern Division (Oct. 25, 1973), pp. 630-646
14.
Warnock, Mary. Women Philosophers. Cambridge: University of Cambridge,
1992.