Seminar in Ethics: Utilitarianism

Office hours: Tu 1:30-2:30, and by appointment

Fall 2009

Office: HLMS 164B

Professor Norcross

Phone: 303 492 7527

Email: norcross@colorado.edu

Texts: The Blackwell Guide to Mill's Utilitarianism, Henry West (ed.)

Consequentialism and its Critics, Samuel Scheffler (ed.)

Various online readings

Course description: This seminar will focus on the debate between consequentialism, mainly represented by utilitarianism, and deontology.

Requirements: weekly papers (weeks 2-13), final paper, one class presentation, class participation. Since class participation is a requirement for passing the class, and you can't participate unless you attend, this class has the following attendance policy: more than three absences, 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.

Weekly papers: For the twelve weeks starting with Week 2 and ending with Week 13 you will write nine short (450-900 words) reaction pieces to the readings assigned for that week. (For the math challenged among you, that means you can miss three weeks) The purpose of the assignments is for you to engage the readings, not to summarize them. Find something interesting in the readings that you want to talk about. You might want to take issue with something you read, to support it, or simply to point out how interesting or important it is. Your assignment should be uploaded to your dropbox on the CU Learn site. Paste the text into the text box. If there is formatting you really don't want to lose, you can also attach your assignment as a Word document (save it as either Word 2004 or earlier or as rtf), but make sure to paste into the text box as well. It should be well-written (complete grammatical sentences, correct spelling), and carefully proofed. In addition to submitting your paper in the assignments section of CU Learn, you should submit it as a discussion item. This will allow the rest of the class to read it as well. In order to give the whole class (including me) time to read your papers before the seminar meets, the papers are due by 5pm on the Monday of the relevant week.

Class presentations: Each of you will make one presentation to the class over the course of the semester. Details will be given in class.

Suggestions. Do the reading assignments well in advance. You will probably have to read the text two or three times before you have an adequate grasp of the material. Philosophy is hard. Don't expect to understand it all at the first reading. Make use of my office hours to discuss things you don't understand. Ask questions in class. 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).

Religious holidays: If you have to miss a class because of a religious holiday, plan on using one of your three excused absences.

Honor Code: The honor code applies to every aspect of this class (including attendance).

Schedule of assignments (subject to change throughout the semester; check frequently). Readings are from The Blackwell Guide to Mill's Utilitarianism (BG), Consequentialism and its Critics (CC) and online sources as indicated.

Dates

Assignment

Wk 1 (A25)

Utilitarianism chapters 1 & 2 (BG)

Wk 2 (S1)

Donner, Fuchs (BG)

Wk 3 (S8)

Utilitarianism chapters 3 & 4 (BG)

Wk 4 (S15)

Miller, West (BG)

Wk 5 (S22)

Utilitarianism chapter 5, Sumner (BG)

Keith and Jason

Wk 6 (S29)

Rawls, Williams (CC)

Annaleigh and Rebecca

Wk 7 (O6)

Nagel, "War and Massacre"

Nozick "Side Constraints" (CC)

Norcross, "Two Dogmas of Deontology: Aggregation, Rights, and the Separateness of Persons" (In CU Learn course content)

Nathan and Noel

Wk 8 (O13)

Foot, "Utilitarianism and the Virtues" (CC)

Dan and Kelly

Wk 9 (O20)

Scheffler, "Agent-Centered Restrictions, Rationality, and the Virtues" (CC)

Jon and Spencer

Wk 10 (O27)

Railton, "Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality" (CC)

Norcross, "Consequentialism and Commitment" (CU Learn course content)

Vernon and Joey

Wk 11 (N3)

Shaw, Norcross in BG

Joseph and Michael

Wk 12 (N10)

No class

Wk 13 (N17)

Hooker (BG), Howard Snyder "Rubber Duck" (CU Learn resources)

Ryan and Addison

Wk 14 (D1)

Norcross, "Good and Bad Actions", "Harming in Context" (CU Learn resources)

Quincy and Andrew

Wk 15 (D8)

Final paper due D 8