PHIL 1100 -- Ethics
Section 880 (honors)
Fall 2021
Tu/Th 2:20 - 3:35 p.m.
INFO 158

Professor
Chris Heathwood
heathwood@colorado.edu
Office: Hellems 278
Hours: Tuesdays 4:00-5:30; Fridays 11:00-12:30; and by appointment on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays

Course Description
This course provides an introduction to ethics by way of a study of doctrines and arguments in the normative ethics of behavior (the theory of right and wrong) and some of their applications to practical ethics.  Our goals are to understand some major theories and positions in these areas; to understand and evaluate important arguments for and against these theories; and to come to our own reasoned views on these issues.  Our topics will include simple logic and critical thinking, divine command theory, cultural relativism, utilitarianism, a utility-based position on abortion, rights theory, a rights-based position on abortion, moderate deontology, and a deontological position on U.S. slave reparations.

Course Website
The course website, which you should check regularly, can be found here:

     http://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/1100hFA21/.

Here you will find:

• this syllabus
• course readings
• brief summary of what we did each day (check this first if you miss a class)
• reading questions
• lecture slides
  
• study guides for exams
• guidance on papers
• paper assignments
  
• and more.

Readings
There will be no book!  All readings are online and are or will be linked below on the course schedule.  You will need a password to access some of them, which I will give you in class and by email.

Lecture Slides
I will be using slides in lecture, which I will make available via links on the course schedule below.  But the availability of these slides is no substitute for good note-taking.  Many important details are not on the slides!

Class Mates
So that you will have someone from whom to get the notes and other pertinent information should you miss class, introduce yourself to two of your classmates, and get their email addresses and phone numbers.

Course Requirements
1. Technology.  You must have an email account and regular access to the internet, and you must check your colorado.edu email address and the course website frequently.

Classrooms should be free from external intrusions, so except for possible occasional times when we want to look something up as a class, our classroom will be an internet-free zone.  Thus, please silence your cell phone when you get to class.  And please never text in class.  If you need to communicate with someone from the outside world during class, no problem — just step outside of the room to do so.

2. Three Exams (45%): There will be three exams, roughly evenly distributed throughout the semester (probably in weeks 6, 11, and finals week).  Each exam is an in-class, closed-note, bluebook exam.  To help you prepare, and to give you an idea about the sorts of questions you can expect, a study guide will be made available before each exam.  Furthermore, we will have a review day before each part of each exam where I will take your questions about the study guide.  You should come prepared for these review sessions by having already written out your own answers to the questions on the study guide.

If you miss an exam during the semester, you will be permitted to take a makeup exam only if you have a legitimate, documented excuse (e.g., non-trivial illness, death in the family, religious obligation).  If you need to miss an exam, let me know in advance.

3. Two Papers (25%): Two papers are required.  The first one, worth 10% of your grade for the course, will be due fairly early on (around week 4), and the second, worth 15%, will probably be due in the last week of the semester (week 15).  Finalized due dates will eventually be put on the course schedule below.  The topic and a detailed structure for the first paper will be provided for you.  The second paper will be more open-ended option.  I'll have more to say about papers in class, and I have a Philosophy Paper FAQ, which you should get to know.

Late papers will be penalized unless you have a legitimate, documented excuse; the penalty is 1/3 of a letter grade per day late (see the Philosophy Paper FAQ for more details on this).

4. A Bunch of Reading Quizzes (15%):  There will be quite a few pop quizzes throughout the semester.  These quizzes are designed to test that you are doing and understanding the readings, and to give you an incentive never to miss class.  For each reading, there will be a set of Reading Questions posted on the website.  All of the questions on the pop quizzes will be taken directly from these reading questions.  Furthermore, these quizzes are open-note.  Thus, as you are doing each reading and taking notes on it, you should write down each question in your notes and then write your answer to it, which you can find by reading, studying, and re-reading the reading.  Then bring these notes with you to class.  All of the answers to the pop-quiz questions should then be right in your notes!  So, yes, there is no reason that you all shouldn't ace all of the reading quizzes.

Quizzes are not restricted to readings that were due on the day of the quiz.  They might cover readings that were due on earlier days.

You are permitted to use notes only that you yourself created from doing the reading; you cannot use or copy a classmate's notes.  Though the pop quizzes are open-note, they are not open-book or "open-reading."

You can drop your lowest quiz score.  If you miss a quiz due to missing class or being late, you'll use that up.

You'll be filling out a Questionnaire the first week of class, and I'll start your quiz scores out right by having merely filling this out as counting as a perfect score for your first quiz score.

5. Participation in Class Discussions (15%).  Since this is a small honors class, I want to have plenty of discussion and class participation, and to hear regularly from everyone.  Consequently, participating in class discussions will be a fairly significant part of the grade (15%).  So that I can keep track of your participation in a reliable manner and also make sure that I am giving everyone equal opportunity to participate, we're going to make use of a little system.  You will each receive four color-coded, single-use cards: a pink one (highest priority, use first); a yellow one (medium-high priority, use next); and a green one (medium-low priority, use next); and a white one (lowest priority, use last).  You'll write your name on each of your cards.  When you want to ask a question or make a comment, raise the highest priority card that you have, just as you would raise your hand.  I'll call on pink cards first, then yellow, then green, then white (so I'll call on a yellow card only if there are no pink cards raised, I'll call on a green card only if there are no pink and yellow cards raised; I'll call on a white card only if there are no pink, yellow, or green cards raised; and I'll call on an empty hand only if there are no cards raised).  When I call on you, I’ll collect your card.

The system is designed to have everyone participate at least once a week, on average.  In order to get full credit in the participation category in a given period, you need to use all three of your cards during that period.  At the beginning of the next period, I’ll redistribute the cards.  The periods will be the periods between the exams.  

No more than one card can be used on a single day.  However, you can still  participate more than once on a given day.  If you have already used a card on a given day or have already used of all four of your cards during a period, you are still very much encouraged to continue participating; simply raise your hand with no card in it.

More about the card system:

• Cards are not transferable
• If you lose your cards sometime during the period, I'll replace them (though you may miss out on some possible days to use them); if you lose them a second time during our class, you'll get zero participation credit for the period in which you lost them (I'll replace them again at the start of the next period)
  
• If you forget your cards on a given day, you won't be able to use any cards that day (but of course you can still participate)
• For the use of your card to count, your question or comment needs to meet a certain minimum threshold of substantiveness, of which I'll be the judge
• To get credit for participation over a period, you must avoid using electronic devices in class during that period; otherwise, you'll get a zero for that period.

I recognize that speaking in front of a group is scary for almost everyone and that, for some students, it is very difficult.  I hope you will use this opportunity to work on working on this fear in a friendly, supportive environment; you'll be glad you did.  However, if you have serious social anxiety or for some other reason absolutely, positively cannot talk in class, let me know.  We'll work together to come up with an alternative way for you to get discussion credit.

Grading
Your final grade for the course is determined according to the following scheme: