Spring 2013

ETH 2050 - 001 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31445 

Days: MWF from 08:30 am to 09:20 am
Instructors: Christopher M. Davidson  
This class will explore the great ethical forms of thought that Western theology and philosophy have developed over many centuries. These systems of thought are not ‘dead and gone’, but instead, they inform our lives and actions today. In both our general aims, and in the details of ethical dilemmas we all face, we still rely on these ethical forms to judge our behavior, and that of others. There is another, more personal, way to consider the importance of ethics: all people seek the good life – but are you sure that you are pursuing the true good, or seeking it in the right way? You probably do not have a ready answer to this question, but the significant ethical texts of the past and present can inform each of us about the true good, and how to achieve it. 

ETH 2050 - 002  Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31449 

Days: MWF from 09:30 am to 10:20 am
Instructors: Cynthia Rose Nielsen  
This course examines a perennial and deeply relevant question: what is the good life for human beings? This question has occupied the world’s greatest thinkers and continues to be a question of utmost concern not only for philosophers and theologians but for all humans. Given our social character, inquiry regarding the good life is not only a concern for one’s self, it is likewise a concern for the good of others, including others with whom we differ. Of course not everyone agrees concerning in what the good life consists. Even in a community where there is consensus about the basic principles of a morally good life, sharp disagreements persist over whether particular lives are acceptable variations that rightfully and justly embody these principles. Many factors such as culture, upbringing, social narratives, legal structures, educational opportunities, social class, ethnicity, and so forth can and do influence our self-formation, social identity, and how we think about moral issues. In this course we shall read and critically analyze primary texts from ancient, medieval, modern, postmodern, and present-day thinkers (including critical race and feminist theorists) in order to discern which view or views best uphold true human flourishing and universal justice.      

ETH 2050 - 003 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31452 

Days: MWF from 09:30 am to 10:20 am
Instructors: Christopher M. Davidson  
This class will explore the great ethical forms of thought that Western theology and philosophy have developed over many centuries. These systems of thought are not ‘dead and gone’, but instead, they inform our lives and actions today. In both our general aims, and in the details of ethical dilemmas we all face, we still rely on these ethical forms to judge our behavior, and that of others. There is another, more personal, way to consider the importance of ethics: all people seek the good life – but are you sure that you are pursuing the true good, or seeking it in the right way? You probably do not have a ready answer to this question, but the significant ethical texts of the past and present can inform each of us about the true good, and how to achieve it.  

ETH 2050 - 004 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31453 

Days: MWF from 10:30 am to 11:20 am
Instructors: Cynthia Rose Nielsen
This course examines a perennial and deeply relevant question: what is the good life for human beings? This question has occupied the world’s greatest thinkers and continues to be a question of utmost concern not only for philosophers and theologians but for all humans. Given our social character, inquiry regarding the good life is not only a concern for one’s self, it is likewise a concern for the good of others, including others with whom we differ. Of course not everyone agrees concerning in what the good life consists. Even in a community where there is consensus about the basic principles of a morally good life, sharp disagreements persist over whether particular lives are acceptable variations that rightfully and justly embody these principles. Many factors such as culture, upbringing, social narratives, legal structures, educational opportunities, social class, ethnicity, and so forth can and do influence our self-formation, social identity, and how we think about moral issues. In this course we shall read and critically analyze primary texts from ancient, medieval, modern, postmodern, and present-day thinkers (including critical race and feminist theorists) in order to discern which view or views best uphold true human flourishing and universal justice.      

ETH 2050 - 005 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31455 

Days: MWF from 10:30 am to 11:20 am
Instructors: John V. Garner
While it would not be true to say that every big philosophical question arises everyday for everyone, there is at least one question that cannot fail to show up for us, and is implicitly answered by us, even in our most unreflective choices and habits, namely the question "What is a good life?"  This course involves students in the continued posing of this question as we explore together many modes of asking and answering it both in the present and in the recent and distant past.  Weaving our way through ancient philosophical theories of virtuous living, theological grappling with human purpose, and contemporary moral controversies concerning principles and their applications, we will strive to discover or develop resources for critically reflecting on normative claims.  We will seek especially to cultivate skills for articulating the potential tensions or accord between, for example, the moral life and the life of pleasure, Christian and alternative accounts or virtue, social and individual good, moral relativism and objective moral claims, and questions of justice.     

ETH 2050 - 006 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31456 

Days: MWF from 11:30 am to 12:20 pm
Instructors: Cynthia Rose Nielsen
This course examines a perennial and deeply relevant question: what is the good life for human beings? This question has occupied the world’s greatest thinkers and continues to be a question of utmost concern not only for philosophers and theologians but for all humans. Given our social character, inquiry regarding the good life is not only a concern for one’s self, it is likewise a concern for the good of others, including others with whom we differ. Of course not everyone agrees concerning in what the good life consists. Even in a community where there is consensus about the basic principles of a morally good life, sharp disagreements persist over whether particular lives are acceptable variations that rightfully and justly embody these principles. Many factors such as culture, upbringing, social narratives, legal structures, educational opportunities, social class, ethnicity, and so forth can and do influence our self-formation, social identity, and how we think about moral issues. In this course we shall read and critically analyze primary texts from ancient, medieval, modern, postmodern, and present-day thinkers (including critical race and feminist theorists) in order to discern which view or views best uphold true human flourishing and universal justice.

ETH 2050 - 007 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31459 

Days: MWF from 11:30 am to 12:20 pm
Instructors: Timothy Jussaume  

ETH 2050 - 008 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31462 

Days: MWF from 12:30 pm to 01:20 pm
Instructors: John V. Garner  
While it would not be true to say that every big philosophical question arises everyday for everyone, there is at least one question that cannot fail to show up for us, and is implicitly answered by us, even in our most unreflective choices and habits, namely the question "What is a good life?"  This course involves students in the continued posing of this question as we explore together many modes of asking and answering it both in the present and in the recent and distant past.  Weaving our way through ancient philosophical theories of virtuous living, theological grappling with human purpose, and contemporary moral controversies concerning principles and their applications, we will strive to discover or develop resources for critically reflecting on normative claims.  We will seek especially to cultivate skills for articulating the potential tensions or accord between, for example, the moral life and the life of pleasure, Christian and alternative accounts or virtue, social and individual good, moral relativism and objective moral claims, and questions of justice.

ETH 2050 - 009 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31463 

Days: MWF from 12:30 pm to 01:20 pm
Instructors: Timothy Jussaume  

ETH 2050 - 010 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31465 

Days: MW from 01:30 pm to 02:45 pm
Instructors: Brett T. Wilmot  
This course will introduce you to classic and contemporary sources in ethics, including primary sources from thinkers such as Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. In addition, we will be reading a range of contemporary sources that will gives us the opportunity to explore some of these thinkers’ ideas as they relate to contemporary topics in sexual ethics, economics, and healthcare, particularly end-of-life decisions. The main objectives are to promote a more sophisticated grasp of the moral dimensions of human life and an increased awareness of our continued participation in complex, living traditions of critical reflection on ethics and the moral life. Students will be asked to engage one another and the instructor throughout the semester in a civil and critical dialogue as part of a project of mutual education.      

ETH 2050 - 011 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31467 

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm
Instructors: Mark Andrew Wilson  
This course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of moral reasoning from both philosophical and religious perspectives.  We will begin by examining basic methods and theories in ethics and then will spend the majority of the semester exploring a range of contemporary issues in medicine, international relations, business, the environment, and social justice.  Utilizing real-world cases to frame our study, we will probe the challenges and tensions in applied moral reasoning.  Through this course one should grow to understand the complexity of these topics and to appreciate how religious and philosophical thought inform public discourse in the United States today.  Along the way, we will ask whether individuals or groups have a responsibility to protect the interests of vulnerable populations: fetuses, political communities under attack, sick and dying patients, and the culturally marginalized.  Students should come away from the course better able to contemplate and critically analyze issues of great importance for their personal, professional, and civic lives

ETH 2050 - 012 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31469 

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm
Instructors: Selin Gursozlu  
This course concentrates on the questions of the good life and the nature of the human good. We will particularly focus on eudaimonistic moral thought and explore what kind of a human life is worth pursuing. We will start by reading some of the classical texts from Ancient Ethics and Roman Catholic tradition as the vision of human flourishing emerges particularly from these two sources.  In the second portion of the course, we will be reading a range of contemporary essays and discuss specific moral problems in the light of these two eudaimonistic traditions. The issues we will discuss include justice and poverty; moral luck; oppression; forgiveness; the necessities of life (food and sex); euthanasia; and environmental problems. * The format of this class is discussion/lecture. This course is also officially designated as writing enriched. 

ETH 2050 - 013 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31472 

Days: MW from 04:30 pm to 05:45 pm
Instructors: Selin Gursozlu  
This course concentrates on the questions of the good life and the nature of the human good. We will particularly focus on eudaimonistic moral thought and explore what kind of a human life is worth pursuing. We will start by reading some of the classical texts from Ancient Ethics and Roman Catholic tradition as the vision of human flourishing emerges particularly from these two sources.  In the second portion of the course, we will be reading a range of contemporary essays and discuss specific moral problems in the light of these two eudaimonistic traditions. The issues we will discuss include justice and poverty; moral luck; oppression; forgiveness; the necessities of life (food and sex); euthanasia; and environmental problems. * The format of this class is discussion/lecture. This course is also officially designated as writing enriched.

ETH 2050 - 014 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31473 

Days: TR from 08:30 am to 09:45 am
Instructors: Peter Wicks
The study of ethics is concerned both with particular moral controversies and with the question of the nature of the good life for human beings: what is it for a human life to go well? In the first half of this course we will examine some of the traditions of ethical thought that have exerted the strongest influence in the Western intellectual tradition and which continue to influence contemporary moral thought. In the second half of the course we will turn out attention to a range of contemporary moral controversies and explore the ways in which knowledge of the ethical views that have shaped contemporary ethical thought can help us to understand the deepest sources of our moral disputes

ETH 2050 - 015 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31475 

Days: TR from 08:30 am to 09:45 am
Instructors: Michael J. Olson  
This course will introduce you to classic and contemporary sources in ethics, including primary sources from thinkers such as Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. In addition, we will be reading a range of contemporary sources that will gives us the opportunity to explore some of these thinkers’ ideas as they relate to contemporary topics in sexual ethics, economics, and healthcare, particularly end-of-life decisions. The main objectives are to promote a more sophisticated grasp of the moral dimensions of human life and an increased awareness of our continued participation in complex, living traditions of critical reflection on ethics and the moral life. Students will be asked to engage one another and the instructor throughout the semester in a civil and critical dialogue as part of a project of mutual education

ETH 2050 - 016 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31485 

Days: TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am
Instructors: Michael J. Olson  
This course will introduce you to classic and contemporary sources in ethics, including primary sources from thinkers such as Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. In addition, we will be reading a range of contemporary sources that will gives us the opportunity to explore some of these thinkers’ ideas as they relate to contemporary topics in sexual ethics, economics, and healthcare, particularly end-of-life decisions. The main objectives are to promote a more sophisticated grasp of the moral dimensions of human life and an increased awareness of our continued participation in complex, living traditions of critical reflection on ethics and the moral life. Students will be asked to engage one another and the instructor throughout the semester in a civil and critical dialogue as part of a project of mutual education

ETH 2050 - 017 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31487 

Days: TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am
Instructors: Jules van Schaijik  
How should we live? And what sort of life will make us happy? The western intellectual tradition has given many different answers to these questions. We will look at the most important of those, giving special attention to the eudemonism of ancient Greece, and the various adjustments made to it under the influence of Christianity. As we go through the different ethical theories, we will also ask what view of the human person and of the human community each presupposes.

A central aim of the course is to bring the ethical traditions we study to bear on contemporary life and situations. Doing this will help us go beyond the question “what did so and so think?” to “Is it really true?” and “Is it still helpful?”

We will read Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics cover to cover, and supplement with various other, shorter readings from Augustine, Aquinas, Hobbes, Mill, Kant, etc.       

ETH 2050 - 018 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31491 

Days: TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm
Instructors: Mark J. Doorley  
This course involves students in the ongoing conversation about what constitutes the good life.  That conversation involves ancient and modern thinkers, both philosophers and theologians, as well as people alive today, struggling with questions that each generation seeks to answer:  What is the good life?  What kind of community do we want to create?  What does justice demand of me?  Of us?  Does it matter what I believe about human nature, or about God, or about society when it comes to how I live my life?  Is being happy the same thing as being a good person?  One goal of the course is to provide students with “toe holds” into this longstanding conversation.  Another goal is to enable students to engage these resources as they might bear upon some contemporary moral challenge and/or reality.  These goals will be accomplished through a combination of the following:  reading challenging texts, examining some contemporary moral challenges, and writing essays designed to synthesize the insights of the first two activities.

This is also a service-learning course.  Everyone in this class is also a member of the Sophomore Service-Learning Community.  You will all be involved in some kind of service, whether working with children in public school or after school programs, tutoring adults working for their GED, or engaging with people who are some of the most vulnerable in our society.  Regardless of what you are doing as service, the course content will regularly call upon that service experience, and at its best, the course content will provide a helpful lens to understand oneself and the world one experiences in and through the service.     

Must be assigned one of the following Student Attributes: Service Learning

ETH 2050 - 019 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31500 

Days: TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm
Instructors: Jules van Schaijik  
How should we live? And what sort of life will make us happy? The western intellectual tradition has given many different answers to these questions. We will look at the most important of those, giving special attention to the eudemonism of ancient Greece, and the various adjustments made to it under the influence of Christianity. As we go through the different ethical theories, we will also ask what view of the human person and of the human community each presupposes.

A central aim of the course is to bring the ethical traditions we study to bear on contemporary life and situations. Doing this will help us go beyond the question “what did so and so think?” to “Is it really true?” and “Is it still helpful?”

We will read Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics cover to cover, and supplement with various other, shorter readings from Augustine, Aquinas, Hobbes, Mill, Kant, etc.

ETH 2050 - 020 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31501 

Days: TR from 01:00 pm to 02:15 pm
Instructors: Mark Andrew Wilson  
This course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of moral reasoning from both philosophical and religious perspectives.  We will begin by examining basic methods and theories in ethics and then will spend the majority of the semester exploring a range of contemporary issues in medicine, international relations, business, the environment, and social justice.  Utilizing real-world cases to frame our study, we will probe the challenges and tensions in applied moral reasoning.  Through this course one should grow to understand the complexity of these topics and to appreciate how religious and philosophical thought inform public discourse in the United States today.  Along the way, we will ask whether individuals or groups have a responsibility to protect the interests of vulnerable populations: fetuses, political communities under attack, sick and dying patients, and the culturally marginalized.  Students should come away from the course better able to contemplate and critically analyze issues of great importance for their personal, professional, and civic lives. 

ETH 2050 - 021 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31502 

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45 pm
Instructors: Mark Andrew Wilson  
This course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of moral reasoning from both philosophical and religious perspectives.  We will begin by examining basic methods and theories in ethics and then will spend the majority of the semester exploring a range of contemporary issues in medicine, international relations, business, the environment, and social justice.  Utilizing real-world cases to frame our study, we will probe the challenges and tensions in applied moral reasoning.  Through this course one should grow to understand the complexity of these topics and to appreciate how religious and philosophical thought inform public discourse in the United States today.  Along the way, we will ask whether individuals or groups have a responsibility to protect the interests of vulnerable populations: fetuses, political communities under attack, sick and dying patients, and the culturally marginalized.  Students should come away from the course better able to contemplate and critically analyze issues of great importance for their personal, professional, and civic lives

ETH 2050 - 022 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31507 

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45 pm
Instructors: Mary Lee Hirschfeld  
What is happiness?  What is a good life?  The answers to those questions should inform our decisions about what we should do, how we should act.   In this course, we will explore those questions in the context of three traditions:  Greek, Christian, and Liberal/Modern.  A particular theme in the course will be on the role material goods play in a life well-lived.  Do we have to choose between wealth and virtue?  Or can we find a comprehensive vision of a good life that embraces both our desire to flourish and our desire to be virtuous?

ETH 2050 - 023 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31509 

Days: MWF from 08:30 am to 09:20 am
Instructors: James M. Murdoch  
This course will examine key questions about ethics, including notably the question of why (or whether) we should be ethical at all.  We will examine current ethical questions as well as classical authors of import, Plato, Aristotle, and others.  We will also take note of both Catholic positions and opposing arguments

ETH 2050 - 024 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31512 

Days: TR from 04:00 pm to 05:15 pm
Instructors: Mary Lee Hirschfeld  
What is happiness?  What is a good life?  The answers to those questions should inform our decisions about what we should do, how we should act.   In this course, we will explore those questions in the context of three traditions:  Greek, Christian, and Liberal/Modern.  A particular theme in the course will be on the role material goods play in a life well-lived.  Do we have to choose between wealth and virtue?  Or can we find a comprehensive vision of a good life that embraces both our desire to flourish and our desire to be virtuous?

ETH 2050 - 100 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31517 

Days: W from 06:10 pm to 08:50 pm  

ETH 2050 - 101 Ethical Traditions & Contemporary Life CRN: 31519 

ETH 3010 - 001 TOP: Ethics and Literature CRN: 31525 

Days: TR from 01:00 pm to 02:15 pm
Instructors: Peter Wicks  
In this course we will discuss a number of ethical issues addressed by literary works, and also reflect on the relationship between literature and ethics. Can literature not only illustrate moral ideas, but provide moral insight? Can the books we read make us better (or worse) people? We will consider whether works of literature can be judged in moral terms or whether Oscar Wilde was right to say that “there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book.” A preliminary list of literary works that will be discussed includes Sophocles’ Antigone, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons. In addition to these literary works, we will discuss the work of some important figures from the history of philosophy whose ideas have influenced the way that we think about the ethical significance of literature, including Plato, Aristotle, and Hegel. We will also read works by a number of contemporary thinkers who have played a prominent role in recent debates about the legitimacy of criticizing literature in ethical terms, including Martha Nussbaum, Wayne Booth, and Richard Posner. Students interested in this course should contact Professor Wicks at peter.wicks@villanova.edu for more information.
Prerequisites:
ETH 2050 Concurrency or HON 2050 Concurrency

ETH 3010 - 002 TOP: Ethics of Emerging Tech CRN: 31529 

Days: MW from 01:30 pm to 02:45 pm
Instructors: Selin Gursozlu  

 This class is an exploration of ethics of emerging technologies in the 21^st century.  Our discussions will be centered around two main questions: Which technologies are likely to have the greatest impact on human beings and human societies; and What ethical issues do those technologies and their applications raise for humans and for the environment? The topics we will discuss include ethics in a computer age (e.g. ethics of blogging,  deception and fraud on Facebook, loss of privacy, and so on); ethics of food technologies (e.g. genetically modified food, concerns about health, biodiversity, and animals, and so on); ethics of human and animal experimentation, and many other emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, brain-computer interfacing, the impact of such new technologies on humans and the role of government in evaluating the risks of new technologies.        
Must be enrolled in one of the following Classifications: Junior   Senior

Prerequisites:
ETH 2050 Concurrency or HON 2050 Concurrency

ETH 4000 - 002 Integrating Seminar CRN: 31550 Enrollment: 0 of 15 students.

Days: TBA
Instructors: Brett T. Wilmot  
Attributes: Writing Intensive Requirement

ETH 4975 - 001 Independent Study in Ethics CRN: 31552