Sexual preferences represent a rich site for ethical exploration of topics such as oppression, responsibility, freedom. Because everyone has sexual preferences of some kind or another, everyone has some stake in the answers to these questions. Moreover, the deeply entrenched (indeed, possibly involuntary) nature of… Read More »Unit: The Ethics of Sexual Preference
Most undergraduate students want to be morally good people, and most ethics instructors want to help them be morally good people. Part of accomplishing this task is teaching students how to engage in moral reasoning and examine difficult moral questions, which is what most ethics… Read More »Unit: Psychological Obstacles to Acting Ethically
Descartes provides a classic example of a individual, substantialist conception of the self, and Buddhists deny precisely such a view. Consequently, they present intriguing alternatives for students. Theravada Buddhist argue that there is no self, but that it is conventionally useful to talk as if… Read More »Unit: The Cartesian Self and Buddhist Alternatives
The early Chinese philosophers argued heatedly about how to care for the dead. In this unit, three of the most distinctive views of the period are presented. These can be treated together but also easily break apart for smaller lessons or units with other materials.
This unit provides a brief introduction to Wollstonecraft’s Vindication, exploring gender norms, sexism, and education.
This unit is a six-class arc introducing 20th- and 21st-century Chinese perspectives on human rights.
This is a two-week unit. Day one is on the history of lynching in the United States, featuring lynching photography and Ida B. Wells. Day two is Mengzi on human nature (with Rousseau as secondary reading). Day three is Xunzi on human nature (with Hobbes… Read More »Unit: Lynching, the Milgram Experiments, and the Question of Whether “Human Nature Is Good”
The unit provides an overview of some of the debates between theists and atheists in classical India.
This unit provides an introduction to topics in social epistemology.