PHIL 3100 -- Ethical Theory
Fall 2019
Section 001: MW 3-4:15p, MUEN E431
Section 002: MW 4:30-5:45p, HLMS 141

Professor
Chris Heathwood
heathwood@colorado.edu
Office: Hellems 192
Hours: Th 2-5p, and by appointment

TA
Megan Kitts
Megan.Kitts@colorado.edu
Office: Hellems 15
Hours: W 12-2, and by appointment

Course Description
We make moral and evaluative judgments – e.g., "You shouldn't litter," "It's unfair that some children have no health care," "Friendship helps make life worth living," "Abortion is wrong," "Martin Luther King was a great man" – all the time.  But what are we doing when we do this?  Are we describing an objective moral reality, or ultimately just expressing our feelings?  Are such statements ever true?  Can we ever know one to be true?  If there are moral facts, are they just a subclass of the natural facts about the world?  Assuming that we do have moral obligations, why should we care about them?  These are some questions in metaethics, to which the first part of this course will provide an introduction.

Then we will turn to normative ethics, where we attempt to figure out which moral claims – and, in particular, which fundamental moral principles – are actually true.  Our main question will be, What makes an act right or wrong?  Consequentialists believe that an act's rightness or wrongness is to be explained solely in terms of how good or bad its outcome would be.  We will explore this theory in some detail.  Deontologists reject the view that how good the consequences would be is all that matters.  Some believe that this doesn't matter at all; they believe that we have moral rights, and that our only moral obligations are to avoid violating people's rights.  Other deontologists are more moderate and pluralistic: they believe that there are moral reasons for or against a number of different kinds of behavior (some having to do with promoting good consequences, perhaps others having to do with violating rights), and that the correct moral theory requires us to weigh all of the various competing moral considerations.  We will explore deontology in some detail as well.

This is a difficult class, especially for those not majoring in philosophy.  The prerequisite is two prior courses in philosophy.  But more experience than that is recommended.  Talk to me about it if you are unsure.

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

     http://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/3100FA19/.

Here you will find:

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

Readings
One book is required:

Michael Huemer, Ethical Intuitionism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). ISBN: 0230573746.

You should be able to find it in the CU Bookstore.  I will make the first chapter from the book available for download so that you can do our first reading assignment while you are trying to get a hold of the book.

There will be many additional required readings, which are or will be linked to below on the course schedule.  Some of these require a password, which I will give you in class.

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

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

Text messaging during class is strictly prohibited.  We want this class to be an internet-free sanctuary.  First-time offenders will be asked to stop; repeat offenders will lose points or worse.  When you get to class, please turn your cell phone OFF and put it away.

The use of laptops is also prohibited.*  This is because students who use laptops in class do less well in college, as do those who sit near them.  (See also: "Why students using laptops learn less in class even when they really are taking notes.")  See also this quick slideshow by Andrew Mills at Otterbein University, which has, at the end, links to guides for how to take better notes by hand.

If you simply must communicate with someone from the outside world during class, that's fine; this isn't prison.  But please just leave the room to do so.  It is distracting to others (including me) if you are doing stuff on your phone while in class.

(* If you really feel that you will benefit from using a laptop, and you think you can do it in a way that won't be distracting to others, talk to me about it.  Also of course tell me if you have a disability that using a laptop helps with; you can certainly use a laptop in that case.)

2. Reading Quizzes (20%).  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.

Note: 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.  So always bring all of your past reading notes with you to class.

You are permitted to use only those notes 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."

Because you might miss a day or two due to illness, we will allow everyone to drop their two lowest quiz scores.  This is in lieu of having to get absences excused or allowing make-ups for missed quizzes.  So if you miss a quiz due to illness, don't worry about trying to get your absence excused or about asking to do a make-up; instead, you can just drop that score.  But don't miss class unless you really are sick (or have some other legitimate reason).  If you "use up" your quiz drops frivolously, they'll be gone later in the semester when you really are sick and really need them.

There might be a short homework assignment or two.  If so, it will be lumped in with your quiz grades.

3. Two Papers (30%).  Two papers are required: a short, pre-structured paper, and a longer, more open-ended paper.  The shorter one will be due about a third to a half of the way through the term, the other close to the end of the term.  Exact due dates will eventually be posted on the course schedule below.  For the shorter paper, we'll give you the topic and the structure for the paper.  For the second paper, you will be given a set of topics from which you can choose, or you can come up with your own topic related to the course.  Late papers will be penalized 1/3 of a letter grade per day late unless you have a legitimate, documented excuse.  I'll say more about the papers later on; in the meantime, you can look at my Philosophy Paper FAQ.

4. Two Exams (50%).  There will be two exams: a midterm exam and a non-cumulative final exam.  Each exam has two parts, and will take place over two class periods.  The first part of each exam will consist of very-short-answer questions (e.g., multiple choice or true/false questions); the second part will consist of short-answer questions (questions that can usually be answered in a sentence to a paragraph or two).  For the second part of each exam you'll need to bring a bluebook.  Both parts of both exams will take place in class, and will be closed-note and closed-reading.

To help you prepare, a study guide will be made available before each exam.  We will also have a review session (during class) before each part of each exam.  During these, I take your questions about the study guide or anything else related to exam preparation.  You must come prepared for these review sessions by having already written out your own answers to the questions on the study guide.

If you miss any part of any 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, you need to let both of us know in advance, by email.

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