PHIL 1200	Office hours: Tu, 1:30-2:30, and by appointment (your TA will have separate office hours)
Fall 2009	Office:   HLMS 164B
Professor Alastair Norcross TAs: Julie Adeshchenko Amandine Kopperud/Catala Chad Vance	Phone: 303 492 7527 Email: norcross@colorado.edu

Texts: The Elements of Moral Philosophy (6^th ed.), James Rachels and Stuart Rachels

The Right Thing to Do (5^th ed.), James Rachels and Stuart Rachels, eds.

Course description: This course will focus on current moral issues of particular interest and importance, and will analyze them from the point of view of competing approaches to morality. The issues to be studied will be abortion, euthanasia, animal rights, world hunger, and drug legalization. I will expect you to participate in class discussion. Many of you will already have opinions about some of the issues we will be discussing. Although I will welcome your opinions, I will also expect you to be able to discuss the assigned readings. You may often disagree with what you read. Don't be afraid to criticize philosophers. They can't all be right, and they may even all be wrong! I expect you to attend class (lecture and discussion) well-prepared and able to discuss any of the readings assigned up to and including the week of the class.

Requirements (with approximate weight towards final grade): mid-term exam (25%), final exam (35%), final paper (30%), class participation (10%). Observance of the Honor Code, which applies to all aspects of the course. This class has the following attendance policy: starting in week 2 (the week beginning August 31) more than five absences from lectures, or more than three absences from discussion sessions, for whatever reason, will result in failing the course. Since you never know when you might get sick, it is not a good idea to miss class, unless you absolutely have to.

All requirements must be satisfactorily met in order to pass the course.

Suggestions: Do the reading assignments well in advance. You will probably have to read the text two or even three times before you have a sufficient grasp of the material. Philosophy is hard. Don't expect to understand it all at the first reading. Make use of my office hours or your TA's office hours to discuss things you don't understand. Ask questions in class, either in the lectures or the discussion sections. Very few questions are too silly to ask.

Disability Accommodations: If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability please submit a letter to me from Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities (303-492-8671, Willard 322, http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices).

Schedule of assignments. Readings are from The Elements of Moral Philosophy (EMP), The Right Thing to Do (RTD), and web pages.

Week beginning	Assignment	Other
A 24	EMP Ch. 1
A 31	EMP Chs. 2 & 3
S 7	EMP Chs. 4 & 5
S 14	EMP Chs. 6 & 7
S 21	EMP Chs. 8 & 9
S 28	EMP Chs. 10 & 12
O 5	Review for mid-term	Review session October 6, mid-term exam, October 8
O 12	RTD 11 & 12
O 19	RTD 13
O 26	RTD 34 & 35
N 2	RTD 14, Cohen (CU Learn Course Content)
N 9	RTD 15 & 16
N 16	RTD 17 & 18
N 30	Hardin (web) (http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_lifeboat_ethics_case_against_ helping_poor.html), Gardin (CU Learn Course Content)
D 7	RTD 26	Final paper due D 10 (see assignment in CU Learn) Guidelines on writing a philosophy paper (James Pryor, Princeton) (http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/ guidelines/writing.html) Final Exam: Saturday December 12 7:30pm-10:00pm