printer friendly pagePHIL 175: Philosophy of Law
This course will explore foundational issues about the nature of law and its relation to morality, and about legal responsibility and criminal punishment, with a focus on criminal culpability for attempts. Prerequisite:
PHIL 80 and one additional PHIL course.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 175A: Ethics and Politics of Public Service (CSRE 178, ETHICSOC 133, HUMBIO 178, PHIL 275A, POLISCI 133, PUBLPOL 103D, URBANST 122)
Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service work and justice. Is mandatory service an oxymoron? History of public service in the U.S. Issues in crosscultural service work. Integration with the Haas Center for Public Service to connect service activities and public service aspirations with academic experiences at Stanford.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-ER, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Schnaubelt, T. (PI)
;
Terra, L. (PI)
PHIL 175M: Two Ethical Theories and Being a Person (PHIL 275M)
The distinction between the ethics of being a person and the ethics of rules as opposed to the distinction between Kantian ethics and utilitarianism or consequentialism consequentialism. Comparison of these two types of ethics with respect to their relationship to agency and being a good person. Relations between Western ethics and those of other continents.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 175P: Philosophy of Law and Conceptions of Agency (PHIL 275P)
In this course we will explore the connections between recent work in philosophy of law and philosophy of action. Current philosophy of law draws on philosophy of action. One example is the work of Scott Shapiro, who interprets legal activity as a form of social planning that enables citizens to coordinate their activities as agents. We will consider what normative requirements are necessary to make citizens self-legislating autonomous agents. Are formal requirements like consistency and coherence sufficient, or does law have to meet substantial normative and moral requirements? We will also discuss whether the deficiency of ¿evil legal systems¿ can be explained in terms of agency. Can distorted legal system provide agents a coherent form of self-understanding? We will explore these questions through readings by Scott Shapiro, Ronald Dworkin, Lon F. Fuller, David Dyzenhaus, Kristen Rundle, Michael Bratman, David Velleman, and Christine Korsgaard.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Pauer Studer, H. (PI)
PHIL 176: Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition (PHIL 276, POLISCI 137A, POLISCI 337A)
(Graduate students register for 276.) Why and under what conditions do human beings need political institutions? What makes them legitimate or illegitimate? What is the nature, source, and extent of the obligation to obey the legitimate ones, and how should people alter or overthrow the others? Study of the answers given to such questions by major political theorists of the early modern period: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 176B: The Economic Individual in the Behavioral Sciences (PHIL 276B)
(Graduate students register for 276B.)
Last offered: Autumn 2005
PHIL 176C: Religion and Politics: a Latin American Perspective (ETHICSOC 276R, ETHICSOC 376R, PHIL 276C)
Religion has traditionally been banished from politics in some places in Latin America. Religious symbols may not be displayed in public buildings, political discourse is expected to be free from all religious content, and religious ministers are not allowed to run for public office, among other measures. This course examines the political motivation for this kind of policies towards religion taking a comparative perspective with American and French variants of secularism.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 177B: EMOTIONS: MORALITY AND LAW (ETHICSOC 202, ETHICSOC 302, PHIL 277B)
If emotions are the stuff of life, some emotions are the stuff of our moral and legal life. Emotions such as: guilt, shame, revenge, indignation, resentment, disgust, envy, jealousy and humiliation, along with forgiveness, compassion, pity, mercy and patriotism, play a central role in our moral and legal life. The course is about these emotions, their meaning and role in morality and law. Issues such as the relationship between punishment and revenge, or between envy and equality, or St. Paul¿s contrast between law and love, or Nietzsche¿s idea that resentment is what feeds morality, will be discussed alongside other intriguing topics.
Last offered: Winter 2015
PHIL 177C: Ethics of Climate Change (PHIL 277C)
Climate change is an ethical failure. When we cause greenhouse gas to be emitted for our own benefit, the gas spreads around the world and does harm everywhere. Many of those who are harmed emit very little greenhouse gas themselves. When some people harm others for their own benefit, something is morally wrong. Specifically, there is an injustice. One of the ethical problems raised by climate change is how to rectify this injustice. Climate change also raises a different range of ethical questions, which may be classified as questions of value. For example, in making decisions, how should the distant future be valued in comparison with the present and how should we take account of the great loss of human life that climate change will cause? This course investigates the issues of justice and the issues of value. It considers the moral demands that climate change puts both on private individuals and on public institutions. Because the effects of climate change are so widespread and so complex, the methods of economics can be useful in putting ethical principles into effect. The course will therefore assess some of these methods.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 177W: Human Rights (PHIL 277W)
In this course we will think critically about human rights by evaluating complex moral situations and weighing powerful but opposed arguments. In our discussions we will explore a variety of alleged human rights and ask: Which of these is really a human right? What could the justification of human rights be? If some right is a real human right, what exactly does it require of us and others? Are there really any human rights at all, or are human rights just another means for Western societies to impose their way of life on the rest of the world? What is a human right? Case studies will include the death penalty, democratic participation, gay rights and duties of corporations to respect human rights.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Wenar, L. (PI)
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