2001 Spring Boldt Seminar (and 3rd EIN Workshop)
Orientation meeting in December, 2000, or January, 2001: discussion of participants’ letters of background and interest (you did send me one, right?), of handout from Callahan’s “Goals in the Teaching of Ethics,” of the selection from the application to the Bush Foundation that I sent to you last April, of the EIN course questionaire (handout), and of seminar-workshop goals and procedures.
The main assignment (MA) is what I hope everyone reads, especially those with released time for the seminar. The philologer’s dose (PhD) gives additional recommendations, some of which would be MA stuff if life weren’t so short. The basic auditor (BA) is the minimal bluffer’s guide to ethics; I hope that even the auditors can usually ignore it in favor of the MA, but we live by expectation as well as hope.
The first few class meetings (T,Th, 1:20-2:45) will give an overview of some of the main theories and topics students are likely to encounter in typical philosophical (and, to some extent, theological) ethics courses. This will serve as context for our tour of some central writings by many of the major thinkers in the history of western ethics, and for our eventual summer discussions of 20th century themes.
Feb 8: Survey of some Philosophical Ethics.
MA: Survey texts are not everyone’s cup of tea, but the Pojman and Hinman texts are two of the better versions of this genre, and Tong’s text is one of the most respected introductions to the feminist critiques of the field. Read Pojman’s Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong, chaps 1 and 5-8, and/or Hinman’s Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach, chaps 1, 5-6, and 9. You could read one of them and skim the other to get a sense of overlap and differences. Earlier workshop participants read Pojman, but some of them now use Hinman, partly because of the link to his “Ethics Updates” website (see his back cover), which is one of the best and most popular in philosophical ethics. Also read Tong’s Feminine and Feminist Ethics, chap 1.
PhD: Read both Pojman (adding chap 11) and Hinman (adding chaps 10 and 11) and add chaps 2 and 4 in Tong. Singer’s Companion to Ethics (hereafter Companion) and LaFollete’s Guide to Ethical Theory (hereafter Guide) have articles by respected writers on the theories and topics discussed by Pojman, Hinman, and Tong. The article titles are your guide: read a half-dozen or so for context and elaboration. Also, add the two alternatives suggested below for the desperate.
BA: Tong 1 and either Pojman 1, 6&7 (and 8, if possible) or Hinman 1, 5&6 (and 9, if possible). For the desperate: a quick and easy (and not too bad, if I do have to say so myself) alternative to either Pojman or Hinman is the first half of Langerak’s handout “Covenantal Fidelity and Western Ethics” (or Tong’s second chapter, or the handout from Beauchamp and Childress’ Principles of Biomedical Ethics, pp.47-70).
Feb 13: Some Theological Ethics.
MA: Bloomquist and Stumme’s Promise of Lutheran
Ethics, (hereafter PLE) chap 2; second half of Langerak’s
handout “Covenantal Fidelity and Western Ethics”; Boulton, Kennedy, and Verhey’s
From Christ to the World (hereafter FCW):
the passages from the Bible at the beginning of the 13 sections, the Introduction
(pp.1-11) and pp.15-31 of the section of “Scripture and Ethics”; handout
from Fiorenza’s Bread Not Stone: the Challenge of Feminist Biblical
Interpretation.
PhD: The relevant chaps in Pojman (10 and appendix 1) and Hinman (3) emphasize the Divine Command Theory, though they also note some other important ways that religion and ethics connect. Add pp.31-58 in FCW. The Companion and Guide have several related articles, identifiable by title.
BA: PLE 2, Langerak, and in FCW, the Bible passages at the beginning of the first eight sections and the introduction (1-11) and, if possible, the Gustafson article (21-26).
Feb 15: Egoism and relativism.
MA: Pojman 2-4 and 9 and/or Hinman 2 and 4; handout from Bok’s Common Values.
PhD: Pojman 11 & 12; relevant articles in Companion and Guide.
BA: Pojman 2 & 3; Bok handout.
We may delay some of the egoism debate until March 13 and 15.
Feb 20 & 22: Plato.
MA: In Morgan’s Classics of Moral and Political Theory, 2nd ed.(hereafter CMPT), the Crito (pp.21-28) and the Republic, books I-VII (pp.32-187). Handouts include a summary of the books of the Republic and an actual photograph of Plato’s epistemology.
PhD: the rest of Plato in CMPT.
BA: Crito and books I, VI, and VII of Republic.
Feb 27: Aristotle.
MA: In CMPT, the Nicomachean Ethics, books I, II, part of VII (chaps 11-14, which is pp.339-343), and X; the Politics, parts of books I (1-3, pp. 385-87), II (1-5, pp. 398-403), and VII (1-3 and 13, pp. 445-50).
PhD: the rest of the Ethics: books III and IV elaborate on specific moral virtues and vices; V is the influential section on justice; VI discusses intellectual virtues; VII concerns weakness of will; VIII and IX contain the famous discussion of friendship. The Pence article in Companion and the Slote article in Guide are relevant; review Pojman 8 and Hinman 9.
BA: Nicomahean Ethics books I and II
and, if possible, X.
Mar 1: Aristotle (cont’d), Epicurus, and Epictetus.
MA: In CMPT, Epicurus’ “Letter to Menoeceus” and The Principle Doctrines; Epictetus’ Encheridion (Handbook).
PhD: The Rowe article on “Ethics in Ancient Greece” in
Companion.
BA: “Letter to Menoeceus” and the first three or so pp. of Encheridion.
Mar 6: Augustine.
MA: Handout of Augustine from Beach’s Christian Ethics; in CMPT, the selections from City of God . (Overlaps: City of God, XIX, 12 & 13 overlap the handout selections, but in a different translation; there is also handout overlap with the Augustine selection from Morals of the Catholic Church in FCW.)
PhD: I can supply a handout from Augustine’s Spirit and Letter.
BA: The handout from Christian Ethics.
Mar 8: Aquinas.
MA: Handout selections from the first edition of CMPT (dropped from our edition if favor of more Aristotle! [question 94 of the Summa Theologica is also in FCW]); questions LXI and LXII (cardinal and theological virtues) in the handout from Basic Writings.
PhD: The rest of the handout from Basic Writings; the Summa Contra Gentiles selection in FCW; pp.109-13; the Haldane and Buckle articles in Companion.
BA: Questions 91 and 94 in the CMPT handout, and questions LXI and LXII in the Basic Writings handout.
Mar 13: Aquinas (cont’d) and Machiavelli.
MA: In CWPT, The Prince. (If you want to spend more time reviewing other material, the BA suggestion includes enough of the most [in]famous advice from The Prince, certainly enough for administrators.)
PhD: Add the Discourses from CWPT.
BA: The Prince, chaps 3, 8, & 15-18.
Here we may return to the egoism debate and readings: Pojman 4 & 9; Hinman 4; and (for the PhDs) the articles by Baier in Companion and Sober and Thomas in Guide.
Mar 15: Catch-up and review.
Spring Break
Mar 27: Luther.
MA: Luther: On Secular Authority (ed. Hopfl), and Treatise on Christian Liberty,
in FCW, pp.187-94; Hutter’s “Twofold
Center of Lutheran Ethics,” in PLE.
PhD: I can provide more material from Luther; look at the rest of the chapters in PLE, including 8 & 9.
BA: On Secular Authority; and as much of Christian Liberty as possible.
Mar 29: Luther (cont’d) and Calvin.
MA: Calvin: On Civil Government (ed. Hopfl), and “On Usury” in FCW, pp.453-55.
PhD: I can provide more material, largely from Calvin’s Institutes. Or, get started on the next assignment, which is hefty.
BA: As much of On Civil Government as possible.
Apr 3: Social Contractarians.
MA: Hobbes’ Leviathan, part 1, 13-16, & part 2, 17-19, in CMPT, pp.631-61; Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, chaps 2-5, 8-9, & 19, in CMPT, pp. 741-55, 769-79, & 804-15; Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (handout); Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, including the preface, in CMPT, pp. 853-91, and the first few pages of his On the Social Contract, in CMPT.
PhD: Peruse more of Hobbes’ Leviathan and Locke’s Second Treatise and the notes to Rousseau’s Origin of Inequality; read all of book I and the first three chaps of book II of Rousseau’s Social Contract and peruse the rest; read the Kymlicka article in Companion and the Sayre-McCord article in Guide.
BA: Leviathan, Introduction and chaps 13-16 of part I; Second Treatise, chaps 2-5; Declaration of Independence. (Rousseau’s Origin is fun and fast--start at the beginning, if you have time, and see how far you get.)
Apr 5: Social Contract (cont’d), and Edwards.
MA: Edwards’ The Nature of True Virtue.
PhD: The articles on Intuitionism (Companion) and Moral Intuition (Guide) are relevant.
MA: As much of Edwards as you can; chaps IV & V are especially sophisticated, and they won’t remind anyone of “Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Apr 10 & 12: Hume and Kant.
MA: Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature, Book III, Part I, in CMPT, pp. 821-32; handout from Hume’s Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals; handout of Kant’s “What is Enlightenment?”; Kant’s Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, preface and sections I & II, in CMPT, pp.983-1019.
PhD: Review Pojman 7 and/or Hinman 6; the articles by O’Neill in Companion and by Hill in Guide are by two of the most respected contemporary Kant scholars; peruse the rest of Hume and/or Kant in CMPT (some of it is hard going).
BA: Either the selection from Hume’s Enquiry (easier) or the one from his Treatise (briefer); Kant’s Grounding, section I and up to p.1009 of section II. If possible, Kant’s “What is Enlightenment?”
Apr 17: Mill.
MA: Mill’s Utilitarianism, in CMPT.
PhD: Add as much of Mill’s seminal On Liberty as possible; review Pojman 6 and Hinman 5; read the articles by Pettit and Goodin in Companion and by Frey and Hooker in Guide.
BA: Utilitarianism, chaps 1, 2, & 5.
Apr 19: Catch-up and review.
Apr 24: De Pizan and Wollstonecraft.
MA: Handout from de Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies; Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman, including the author’s Introduction, the Dedication, chaps 1-4, at least the first section of chap 5, 9-11, and the last section of chap 13; the handout from Rousseau’s Emile.
PhD: The rest of Vindication, including the editor’s Introduction (especially section III); Tong’s Feminine and Feminist Ethics, chap 3; the articles by Grimshaw in Companion and Jaggar in Guide are relevant here, though they could be saved for the upcoming section on feminist critiques in the summer workshop.
BA: As much of the Vindication assignment as you can handle.
Apr 26: Marx.
MA: In CMPT, ”Alienated Labor” and Manifesto of the Communist Party.
PhD: Either or both of the remaining Marx selections in CMPT; the Wood article in Companion.
BA: "Alienated Labor” and sections I and II of Manifesto.
May 1: Catholic Social Teaching.
MA: Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum; Pope John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus (On the Hundredth Anniversary...[there is a selection from this in FCW]); Karen Lebacqz’s Six Theories of Justice, chap 4, on the US Catholic Bishops’ position.
PhD: In FCW, selections 84-86; Lebacqz’s chap 6 on liberation theology.
BA: As much of Rerum Novarum as possible (at least through section 36) and at least chap IV of Centesimus Annus. The Lebacqz chap on the Bishops is fast and helpful.
May 3: Nietzsche.
MA: In CMPT, the selections from Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, along with the one-page handout of the preface and the brief handout from On the Genealogy of Morals. I may provide another handout with a few additional selections from Nietzsche.
PhD: I can provide a handout of selections from Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals, which is the other book most often read by those interested in his views about ethics and values.
BA: From Beyond Good and Evil, sections 6-9, 30-33, 42-44, 201-03, 210-13, and 257-61.
May 8: Catch-up, and Issues of Pluralism.
MA: Handouts from Midgley, Perry, Hanvey,
and Langerak. Perhaps more TBA.
May 10: Using Case-studies and other Pedagogical
Issues.
MA: Handouts from Beauchamp and Childress,
Newton, Stivers et al, and “The Mother of all Case Studies”. Article by Jamieson on method in Companion. Review some of the cases and examples in Pojman and Hinman. Perhaps more TBA.
May 15: Review and Orientation to Summer Workshop. The latter will begin the third full week of June with MacIntyre’s After Virtue. In MacIntyre, Chaps 1-6 and 9 are important, as they give his ctritique of the “disaster” known as “the enlightenment project.” Chaps 7&8 are not central to his main theses, though they are the ones that irritate social scientists the most. Chaps 10-13 are historical and, having read most of the folks he discusses, you would find them accessible and interesting. Chaps 14-18 are important, as they give his own agenda and they have been seminal for the revival of virtue ethics, of narrative ethics, and of the communitarian alternative to liberalism, all of which we will discuss. Chap 19 is his postscript in the 2nd edition (the only change from the first); some readers find it useful to look at it after reading the first few chapters.
Schedule for Third EIN Faculty Development
Workshop, Summer, 2001
Tues, June 5: MacIntyre; Virtue Ethics; Narrative
Ethics
MacIntrye’s After Virtue. Chaps 1-6 and 9 give his influential critique of the “enlightenment project.” Chaps 7&8 are not central to his thesis, but they thoroughly irritate most social scientists (we won’t have much, if any, time to debate them, however). Chaps 10-13 are historical and, having read many of the folks he discusses, you will find them provocative, though not as central as 1-6, 9, and 14-18 (which are the minimum assignment). Chaps 14-18 provide his alternative to liberalism, and have been extremely influential as a critique of the liberal theory of justice, as the revival of a neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics, and as one of the foundational contributions to contemporary narrative ethics. (Chapter 17 will be discussed on June 19, but you may want to read it in sequence.) The addition of Chap 19 is the only change in the 2nd edition; it discusses a number of the critiques of the first edition; you may want to look at it after reading the first few chapters. You may find it useful to look at my brief summary of the book, which highlights the ideas in historical order, which is almost the opposite of MacIntyre’s ordering. Read Nagel’s “Fragmentation of Value” for an instructively less gloomy understanding of what MacIntyre sees as the disintegration of ethics (chaps 1&2). I recommend the selection from Keke’s Morality of Pluralism for a way to applaud much of what MacIntyre boos. You will enjoy the selection from Nietzsche’s “Joyful Wisdom” that MacIntyre cites.
Narrative ethics is not the same thing as using stories to teach ethics. The latter we will discuss more fully in August. The selection from Levine’s Living Without Philosophy defends narrative ethics and uses MacIntyre and a number of the authors and ideas we have discussed to argue that it should replace philosophical ethics. Hilde Lindeman Nelson’s introduction to her anthology Stories and Their Limits (pp. vii-xiv) gives a brief but useful overview on how to do things with stories (alluding to a famous book by J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, which was foundational to ordinary language philosophy), especially in the context of medical ethics. The articles in the first section, (chaps 1-5) provide a debate over the originality and usefulness of this approach. Nelson gives a summary of the articles on pp.xv-xix; I recommend all five of them along with Tom Tomlinson’s somewhat grumpy perplexity about narrative ethics (chap 8) and Childress’s usual ecumenical serenity (chap 17). Read at least three or four of these along with whatever else your narrative calls for at this time.
Thurs, June 7: Theological
Ethics (led by Doug Schuurman)
Niebuhr’s The Responsible Self, chap 1, in FCW, pp. 195-204. The Pope’s On the Hundreth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum (since we read Rerum Novarum, we can skim the first chapter, which is a summary). Allen’s Love and Conflict, chaps 1-7. (Parts of Langerak’s “Covenantal Ethics” borrow shamelessly from the first few chapters, so I hope you experience some de ja vu.) Lebacqz’s Six Theories of Justice, chaps 4-6 (chap 4 was assigned for May 1). The selection from Gustafson’s Catholic and Protestant Ethics. Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture, esp. chaps 1 and 5 (and any chapter that describes the tradition within which you were raised or are glad or sad you weren’t: fundamentalists-2, liberals-3, catholics-4, Doug and Ed-6). (Doug may suggest some additional reading.)
Tues. June 19: Liberalism and (Some of) Its Critics
MacIntyre’s chap 17 along with the two brief excepts from Nozick’s Anrchy, State, and Utopia and Rawls’s Theory of Justice. Lebacqz’s Six Theories of Justice has very helpful chapters on Rawls and Nozick. Singer’s Companion to Ethics has a brief and useful article (#15) by Kymlicka on the social contract tradition. Rawls’s Political Liberalism involves clarification and amendment of Theory of Justice. It’s a series of lectures; the prose doesn’t dance and it is somewhat repetitious, but it has set the agenda for much of the current debate in political ethics. Begin with the Introduction to the paperback edition, even though some of that will make more sense later. Then the introduction to the 1993 edition, pp. xv-xxxii. Then Lecture I and Lecture II, 1-3 (so far that’s pp. 3-65. Then as much of the rest of Parts One and Two as you can muster. (But give yourself time to read some of the critics below.) I think the following (roughly in order of importance) are especially useful and I think they are more or less understandable on their own: IV, 1-4 (pp. 134-140); V, 6&7 (195-200); VI (212-254); and III, 7&8 (119-129). The selection from Keke’s Against Liberalism gives a fair-minded description of liberalism, a perceptive analysis of the notion of autonomy, and a summary of six typical criticisms of liberalism. Perhaps the most famous critic of liberalism is the communitarian Michael Sandel (Liberalism and the Limits of Justice). Read Part One of Democracy’s Discontents, which summarizes his criticisms and illustrates how political liberalism has, in his view, infected the courts over the past few decades. His conclusion (pp. 317-351) is also important, and Part Two may have chapters of special interest to some of you. There are lots of interesting essays in Debating Democracy’s Discontents. Beiner’s Introduction and the essays by Rorty (8), Sennett (9), Kymlicka (10), and Walzer (13) are especially useful, I think; read at least three of them and whatever else attracts your attention.
If we have time, now or later, we will discuss the “public square” debate, which has become something of a growth industry because the issues are so central to current politics. The debate between Audi and Wolterstorff in Religion and the Public Square set out contrasting positions. Your packet includes a selection from Wolterstorff that lays out the main issues in a clear, if somewhat tendentious, way. I will make available selections from Solum and Greenawalt, as well as a chapel talk and an article in progress by yours truly, to anyone who is especially interested in this issue. All of this will also be relevant to the discussion with Ed Santurri on August 14.
Thurs, June 21: Liberalism con’t; and Feminist
Critiques
We may continue with some of the above, and will then move into some feminist critiques of liberalism and its critics. Read Okin’s Justice, Gender, and the Family and her article on Rawls’s Political Liberalism. Read the three Nussbaum pieces; she’s a liberal feminist who is patching up Rawls with Aristotle. Also, read more of Tong’s Feminine and Feminist Ethics: we already read the first three chapters, but they deserve a review at this point. Also read chaps 4, 5, and 8, and any of the others that look interesting to you. Grimshaw has a good, short article (#43) on the very idea of a “female ethic” in Singer’s Companion.
Tues, August 14: Ethics, Politics, Religion,
and Society; Ethics and Aesthetics (led by Ed Santurri)
Santurri’s “Rawlsian Liberalism, Moral Truth and Augustinian Politics” in The Journal for Peace and Justice Studies, along with the critiques, esp. those by Dawson and Jackson. (I will make available another article by Jackson, “Liberalism and Agape,” to those who are interested, though we likely won’t discuss it until Aug 16.)
The packet on aesthetics, along with the x-rated picture that Danto discusses.
We may get to a discussion of the use of literature in ethics courses. In his last EIN course, Santurri used the Pojman anthology The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature, which you recently received. We will likely continue this discussion next week, when the introductions and some of the stories from Rosenstrand’s The Moral of the Story and Bly’s Changing the Bully Who Rules the World will also be relevant, as will the annotated bibliography of “Works of Art and Literature Used in Ethics Courses.”
Thurs, Aug 16: Postmodernism and (Some of) Its Critics
Selections from Lyotard. Rorty’s “Trotsky and Wild Orchids” and “Private Irony” (I apologize for all the markings on it, but the library copy was even worse [I suspect Charles Taliaferro]) and “Ethics without Principles” and “Priority of Democracy” (in that order, if you run out of time).
Bellah et . al., Habits of
the Heart, esp 1-4, 7, and 11 (the appendix has a very interesting discussion
of methodology, including the use of MacIntyre’s ideas on narrative, etc.). The selection from Bellah et. al. The Good
Society. Leonhart’s “If Richer Isn’t Happier,
What Is?” The Pope’s Splendor of Truth,
esp sections 1-15 (pp. 9-27), 35-85 (pp. 51-104), and 96-101 (pp. 112-123). I will make available a curmudgeonly piece by Gertrude
Himmelfarb on the internet and deconstructionism.
Tues, Aug 21: Catchup and Pedagogical Issues
Literature in ethics courses, etc. Selection
from Bok’s Universities and the Future of America.
Thurs, Aug 23: Pedagogical Issues, Course
Syllabi, and Teaching Samples
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Date Last Modified: 8/10/03