Phil 164
What We Did Each Day
Date |
Topics
Covered |
Reading Assigned |
Important Announcements Made |
| W 1/28 | - Introductions |
- Rachels, "What Is Morality," (handout) | Get the textbook (Kuhse and Singer (eds.), Bioethics: An Anthology, which is available at the Textbook Annex. Send me an email with your name, level, major, previous philosophy courses (if any), and why you chose to take this course. |
| F 1/30 | - The
Fundamental Project of Medical Ethics - Some Medical Ethics Questions - What Moral Questions are Not |
- Kuhse and Singer, Introduction to Bioethics (pp. 1-6) | |
M 2/2 |
- What Moral Questions
are Not (continued) - The Method of Reflective Equilibrium |
- Check the "What We Did Each Day" page of the website (this very page) if you ever need to know what we covered on a given day and what reading was assigned. Do this, e.g., if you were absent, or if you've got a really bad memory. | |
| W 2/4 | - Particular Moral
Judgments - General Moral Principles - The Case of Baby Theresa |
Feldman, "What Is Philosophy?" (website) | |
| F 2/6 | - The Case of
Baby Theresa - The Benefits Argument |
Book is available on reserve at the library. (Or it should be -- please notify me if it is not.) | |
| M 2/9 | - What Is Ethics? - What Is Normative Ethics (10C, GR, CR, Utilitarianism) |
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| W 2/11 | - Utilitarianism | Feldman, "Playing God: A Problem for Physician Assisted Suicide?" (website) | Please *print out* this Feldman reading and bring it to class. |
| F 2/13 | - Logic | ||
| M 2/16 | H O L I D A Y -- N O C L A S S | ||
| W 2/18 | CLASS CANCELED DUE TO ILLNES | (today is a Monday schedule) | |
| F 2/20 | CLASS CANCELED DUE TO ILLNES | ||
| M 2/23 | - Playing God - Intro to Abortion (FQA and some possible answers) |
Noonan, "An Almost Absolute Value in History" (website) | |
| W 2/25 | - Intro to Abortion (The Traditional Debate, Side Issues, Some History) | Stott, "Does Life Begin Before Birth?" (website) | |
| F 2/27 | CLASS CANCELED | ||
| M 3/1 | A Brief History of Abortion, Noonan's Main Thesis | ||
| W 3/3 | - Noonan's Main
Argument |
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| F 3/5 | - Noonan’s
Equivocation - Started Stott |
Harthshorne, "Concerning Abortion: An Attempt at a Rational View" (website) | |
| M 3/8 | - A Third Concept of Personhood - Stott’s Argument for Fetal Personhood |
Marquis, "Why Abortion is Immoral" (Bioethics, pp. 46-57) | |
| W 3/10 | - Other Views about Moral Personhood (Life, Psychological Personhood as Moral Personhood) | Thomson, "A Defense of Abortion" (Bioethics, pp. 36-45) | |
| F 3/12 | - Other Views about Moral
Personhood (Birth, Viability) - Marquis (his general strategy, The Desire Theory, The Future-Like-Ours Theory, Consequences of the Future-Like-Ours Theory) |
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| M 3/15 | S P R I N G B R E A K -- N O C L A S S | ||
| W 3/17 | S P R I N G B R E A K -- N O C L A S S | ||
| F 3/19 | S P R I N G B R E A K -- N O C L A S S | ||
| M 3/22 | - review
of Marquis - Thomson's Violinist |
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| W 3/24 | Review for Midterm | ||
| F 3/26 | First Midterm Exam (in class; bring blue or black ink pen -- no pencil, no red pen) | ||
| M 3/29 | - return bluebooks - Taboo |
Gay-Williams, "The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia" (website) | |
| W 3/31 | - Taboo | ||
| F 4/2 | - Intro to Euthanasia - Aquinas's Arguments Against Suicide |
Rachels, "Active and Passive Euthanasia" (Bioethics, pp. 227-230) | |
| M 4/5 | - Aquinas's Natural Law Argument
Against Suicide |
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| W 4/7 | - Gay-Williams's Argument from Nature | - Callahan, "When
Self-Determination Runs Amok," (especially the section "Calculating
the Consequences") (Bioethics, pp. 327-331) - Brock, "Voluntary Active Euthanasia" (website) |
|
| F 4/9 | - The No-Moral-Difference Argument | ||
| M 4/12 | - The No-Moral-Difference Argument | ||
| W 4/14 | - Brock | - Harris, "The Survival Lottery," (pp. 399-403 in Bioethics) | |
| F 4/16 | - Brock - The Survival Lottery |
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| M 4/19 | H O L I D A Y -- N O C L A S S | ||
| W 4/21 | - Intro to Resource
Allocation - The Case of the Runaway Trolley - The Survival Lottery |
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| Th 4/22 | - The Survival Lottery - Objections and Replies |
(today is a Monday schedule) | |
| F 4/23 | C L A S S C A N C E L E D | ||
| M 4/26 | - Objections and Replies to the Survival Lottery | - Kant, "Duties
Towards Aninmals," (p. 459 in Bioethics) - Bentham, "A Utilitarian View," (p. 460 in Bioethics) - Singer, "All Animals are Equal" (pp. 461-470 in Bioethics) |
|
| W 4/28 | - Introduction to Animal
Experimentation - Some Opinions on the Moral Status of Animals from the History of Philosophy |
- Cohen, "Why Animals Have No Rights" (website) | |
| F 4/30 | - Some Background
on the Concept of Moral Standing - Some Sample Theories - Kantian Rationalism |
- OPTIONAL READING: Gruen, "The Moral Status of Animals" (website) | |
| M 5/3 | - Benthamic Utilitarianism - An Argument Against Animal Experimentation - An Objection to the Argument - Modified Kantian Rationalism |
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| W 5/5 | <course
evaluations> - An Argument Against Animal Experimentation - An Objection to the Argument - Modified Kantian Rationalism - Singer’s First Reply: An Argument Against Modified Kantian Rationalism |
John Harris, "'Goodbye Dolly?' The Ethics of Human Cloning" (Bioethics, pp. 143-152). | |
| F 5/7 | - Singer’s Second Reply: A New Argument Against Animal Experimentation | ||
| M 5/10 | |||
| W 5/12 | Review for Final | ||
Final Exam: Thursday, May 20, 8:00 a.m., HASA 126 (Hasbrouck Lab. Addition 126) (Map: C4) |
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