Relevant Courses: ● Ethics● Social and Political Philosophy● Philosophy of Law● Philosophy of Race and Gender Introduction: In the fall of 2022, the United States Supreme Court heard two cases, one which was filed against Harvard University and the other against the University of North… Read More »Primer: The Ethics of Affirmative Action
This primer describes one way of bringing philosophical content to life by integrating podcasts with curriculum. Audio is a way to expand the range of voices, styles and genres that students encounter in philosophy; as an option, students create audio as well. This lends itself to classes that seek to bridge philosophy with real-life experiences, phenomena or case-studies: classes like applied ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of science and feminist philosophy.
The philosophical thought of the Maya people of Central America in the period before Spanish contact in the 16th century is extremely rich. With advances in the last 50 years in decipherment of the Classic Maya glyphs, it has become possible to reconstruct early Maya history, literature, and philosophy. In addition to the glyphic texts of the codices and numerous stelae, carvings, and painted texts throughout the Maya region, Postcontact texts such as the Popol Vuh are important sources for Precolumbian Maya philosophy. Because of the relative dearth of specifically philosophical Precolumbian glyphic texts, such Postcontact texts fill in important details, and can often be the best introductions to Precolumbian Maya thought. For someone new to Maya philosophy, one suggestion for the best “way in” to this material is to begin with the Popol Vuh and Rabinal Achi (both K’iche’ Maya texts written in the Postcontact period but much of the content of which traces back to Precolumbian periods), move to material like the secondary literature discussed below, then perhaps to the Yucatec Chilam Balam texts, and then on to investigations of the glyphs and glyphic texts.
The Deviant Philosopher provides individual primers for particular schools of early Chinese philosophy. However, there are basic questions someone new to teaching any of these materials may have. The purpose of this more global primer is address some of these general questions and additionally provide sufficient background information and tips useful to philosophers new to early Chinese philosophy. Our goal in what follows, then, is simply to give philosophers some basic information that can help one feel more confident in wading into unfamiliar waters.
Care ethicists do ethical theory with special attention to human connection and relationships of care. These relationships have ethical dimensions that other ethical traditions tend not to address, are poorly placed to speak to, or both. Care ethics is, thus, (at least) an important supplement to traditional ethical theories, offering us tools to analyze the ethical dimensions of particular kinds of caring relationships and practices. A focus on human relatedness and caring can also be a starting point for the development of comprehensive care ethical theories comparable in scope to such traditional alternatives as consequentialism, deontology, or virtue theory.
Early Confucianism is typically identified with the Confucian philosophers active during the period leading up to and during the Warring States era in China (6th – 3rd century BCE). The most familiar and discussed figures in this period are Confucius himself, Mengzi, and Xunzi. The period in which these philosophers lived was extraordinarily violent, chaotic, and troubling. Philosophical inquiry thus betrays an atmosphere of crisis, reflecting concerns about what had gone wrong, both politically and morally, and how it might be repaired.