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Ethical questions pervade a human life from before a person is conceived until after she dies, and at every point in between. This course raises a series of ethical questions, following along the path of a person's life - questions that arise before, during, and after she lives it. We will explore distinctive questions that a life presents at each of several familiar stages: prior to birth, childhood, adulthood, death, and even beyond. We will consider how some philosophers have tried to answer these questions, and we will think about how answering them might help us form a better understanding of the ethical shape of a human life as a whole.

The seminar encompasses the personal and cultural components of guilt from multidisciplinary perspectives. At the individual level, it explores behaviors that induce guilt; their relational aspects; genesis in evolutionary and developmental terms: and its normal and pathological manifestations. The cultural section includes cross-cultural perspectives on guilt and its conceptions in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism; as well as in the philosophy of Aristotle, Kant, J. S Mill and Nietzsche, and culpability in the law. Derived from this material, the course will also focus on the nature of ethical reasoning and the ways we make ethical choices and judgments in our lives. Upper division course with preference given to upperclassmen.

Classic articles, legal cases, and foundational concepts. Theoretical approaches derived from philosophy. The ethics of medicine and research on human subjects, assisted reproductive technologies, genetics, cloning, and stem cell research. Ethical issues at the end of life. Upper division course with preference given to upper-classmen.

This course explores the values and questions posed in the formative period of East Asian civilizations. Notions of a Dao ("Way") are common to Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, but those systems of thought have radically different ideas about what that Dao is and how it might be realized in society and an individual's life. These systems of thought appeared first in China, and eventually spread to Korea and Japan. Each culture developed its own ways of reconciling the competing systems, but in each case the comprehensive structure of values and human ideals differs significantly from those that appeared elsewhere in the ancient world. The course examines East Asian ideas about self-cultivation, harmonious society, rulership, and the relation between human and nature with a view toward expanding our understanding of these issues in human history, and highlighting their legacies in Asian civilizations today. The course features selective readings in classics of Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist texts that present the foundational tenets of Asian thought. N. B. This is the first of three courses in the Humanities Core, East Asian track. These courses show how history and ideas shape our world and future. Take all three to experience a year-long intellectual community dedicated to the life of the mind.

This course tells the story of the cradle of civilization. We will start from the earliest human stories, and follow the path from Gligamesh to the Quran via Babylon, the Hebrew Bible, and ancient philosophy. We will read letters, myths, and religious texts in order to pose questions about how how different we are we now in Silicon Valley. What are our traditions? Our faiths? Our foundational stories, or myths? Should we connect ourselves in deep ways to the most ancient past of civilization, or seek to distance ourselves from those origins? N.B. This is the first of three courses in the Middle Eastern track. These courses offer an unparalleled opportunity to study Middle Eastern history and culture, past and present. Take all three to experience a year-long intellectual community dedicated to exploring how ideas have shaped our world and future.

How should we live? This course explores two ethical pathways: mysticism and rationality. They seem to be opposites, but as we'll see, some important historical figures managed to follow both at once. We will read works by successful judges, bureaucrats, academics, and lovers written between 700 and 1900 C.E. We will ask ourselves whether we agree with their choices and judgments about professional success and politics. What would we do differently today? We certainly organize knowledge differently, but do we think about ethics the same way? N.B. This is the second of three courses in the Middle Eastern track. These courses offer an unparalleled opportunity to study Middle Eastern history and culture, past and present. Take all three to experience a year-long intellectual community dedicated to exploring how ideas have shaped our world and future.

In this survey human rights course, students will learn about the principal historical and philosophical bases for the modern concept of human rights, as well as the international legal frameworks meant to protect and promote these rights. Class sessions will include a mix of seminar discussions and guest lectures by distinguished Stanford faculty from departments across the university as well as practitioners from a variety of professional fields. The course seeks to illuminate for how the distinct methodologies, assumptions, and vocabulary of particular disciplinary communities affect the way scholars and practitioners trained in these fields approach, understand, and employ human rights concepts. This course fulfills the gateway course requirement for the minor in Human Rights.

(Formerly IPS 208A) This course will examine the arc of an atrocity. It begins with an introduction to the interdisciplinary scholarship on the causes and enablers of mass violence genocide, war crimes, terrorism, and state repression. It then considers political and legal responses ranging from humanitarian intervention (within and without the Responsibility to Protect framework), sanctions, commissions of inquiry, and accountability mechanisms, including criminal trials before international and domestic tribunals. The course will also explore the range of transitional justice mechanisms available to policymakers as societies emerge from periods of violence and repression, including truth commissions, illustrations, and amnesties. Coming full circle, the course will evaluate current efforts aimed at atrocity prevention, rather than response, including President Obama¿s atrocities prevention initiative. Readings address the philosophical underpinnings of justice, questions of institutional design, and the way in which different societies have balanced competing policy imperatives. Cross-listed with LAW 5033.

This course examines core human rights issues and concepts from a comparative and historical perspective. In the beginning part of the course we will focus on current debates about the universality of human rights norms, considering the foundation of the international human rights regime and claims that it is a product of western colonialism, imperialism, or hegemony. We will then discuss a series of issues where the debates about universality are particularly acute: gender inequality and discrimination, sexual violence, child marriage and forced marriage more generally, and other related topics. We will also consider the way in which issues of gender-based violence arise in the context of internal and international conflicts.