printer friendly pagePHIL 72: Contemporary Moral Problems (ETHICSOC 185M, POLISCI 134P)
In this course, we will discuss the body as a site of moral and political conflict. Here are a few of the questions that will be explored: People are encouraged to become kidney donors, but we still don't have enough kidneys for everybody who needs one. Should you be allowed to sell a kidney? Suppose Robert is dying of a rare disease and the only thing that could save his life is a bone marrow transplant from his cousin David, but David doesn't want to donate. Should we force him to "donate"? Some people say a woman should be free to make abortion decisions on whatever grounds she wants, including prenatal genetic testing for conditions like Down syndrome; others condemn such selective abortion as an unacceptable form of eugenics. What genetic testing information, if any, should be allowed to influence a woman's decision about whether to terminate a pregnancy? In addition to these normative questions, we will also study related questions in constitutional law. When the Supreme Court decided that abortion was a constitutional right in Roe v. Wade, on what legal reasoning did they base their decision? When they decided to overturn Roe in the recent Dobbs v. Jackson, what legal reasoning did they use then? How will Dobbs affect other (current) constitutional rights?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Mapps, M. (PI)
PHIL 76: Introduction to Global Justice (ETHICSOC 136R, INTNLREL 136R, POLISCI 136R, POLISCI 336)
As we live in a globalized world, our lives are interconnected with many other people within and beyond the state borders. Currently, we face urgent problems of global justice, such as climate change, economic inequality, immigration, and health disparities, and how to address these issues is a crucial question for all of us. This course introduces students to normative inquiries into issues of global justice and offers an opportunity to integrate theories and practices by engaging with essential and timely questions. What normative demands does justice impose on individuals and institutions in a global world? Do people in affluent countries bear the responsibility for the suffering of those who live in other countries? Should relatively developed countries open their borders to those from developing countries? How should we allocate responsibilities for reducing global injustice, such as health disparities? How does injustice with historical roots, such as colonialism, further complic
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As we live in a globalized world, our lives are interconnected with many other people within and beyond the state borders. Currently, we face urgent problems of global justice, such as climate change, economic inequality, immigration, and health disparities, and how to address these issues is a crucial question for all of us. This course introduces students to normative inquiries into issues of global justice and offers an opportunity to integrate theories and practices by engaging with essential and timely questions. What normative demands does justice impose on individuals and institutions in a global world? Do people in affluent countries bear the responsibility for the suffering of those who live in other countries? Should relatively developed countries open their borders to those from developing countries? How should we allocate responsibilities for reducing global injustice, such as health disparities? How does injustice with historical roots, such as colonialism, further complicate the picture of normative demands? While there are no easy answers to these questions, throughout this course, students will be exposed to interdisciplinary approaches (including philosophy, political theory, gender studies, etc.), learn to critically analyze various theoretical approaches, and use them as frameworks to develop their views on issues of global justice. This class meets on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9:30-11AM. Please note that in addition to the listed lecture time, students must sign up for a 45-min discussion session. The schedule of the discussion session will be arranged and announced during the first week of the quarter.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Lin, T. (PI)
;
Cooper, E. (TA)
PHIL 82: Ethics, Public Policy, and Technological Change (COMM 180, CS 182, ETHICSOC 182, POLISCI 182, PUBLPOL 182)
Examination of recent developments in computing technology and platforms through the lenses of philosophy, public policy, social science, and engineering. Course is organized around five main units: algorithmic decision-making and bias; data privacy and civil liberties; artificial intelligence and autonomous systems; the power of private computing platforms; and issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the technology sector. Each unit considers the promise, perils, rights, and responsibilities at play in technological developments. Prerequisite:
CS106A.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
PHIL 127: Kant's Foundations of Morality, 2nd Critique (PHIL 227)
(Graduate students enroll in 227.) A study of Kant's ethical thought, focusing on The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, The Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals. Prerequisite: having taken or taking during the same quarter Kant's First Critique (
Phil 125/225). Designed for undergraduate department majors and graduate students.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
PHIL 135: Existentialism
Focus is on the existentialist preoccupation with human freedom. What constitutes authentic individuality? What is one's relation to the divine? How can one live a meaningful life? What is the significance of death? A rethinking of the traditional problem of freedom and determinism in readings from Rousseau, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, and the extension of these ideas by Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus, including their social and political consequences in light of 20th-century fascism and feminism.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
PHIL 135X: Citizenship (ETHICSOC 135, POLISCI 135)
This class begins from the core definition of citizenship as membership in a political community and explores the many debates about what that membership means. Who is (or ought to be) a citizen? Who gets to decide? What responsibilities come with citizenship? Is being a citizen analogous to being a friend, a family member, a business partner? How can citizenship be gained, and can it ever be lost? These debates figure in the earliest recorded political philosophy but also animate contemporary political debates. This class uses ancient, medieval, and modern texts to examine these questions and different answers given over time. We¿Äôll pay particular attention to understandings of democratic citizenship but look at non-democratic citizenship as well. Students will develop and defend their own views on these questions, using the class texts as foundations. No experience with political philosophy is required or expected, and students can expect to learn or hone the skills (writing / reading / analysis) of political philosophy.
Last offered: Summer 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
PHIL 170: Ethical Theory (ETHICSOC 170, PHIL 270)
(Taylor's version) In this iteration of the course we will discuss ethical dimensions of personal identity, integrity, friendship, sex, love, commitment, trust, care, childhood, death, and the afterlife. Substantial background in moral philosophy will be assumed (students should have completed Philosophy 2 or its equivalent; if you have questions, please contact the instructor).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Madigan, T. (PI)
;
Erhardt, R. (TA)
PHIL 171: Justice (ETHICSOC 171, POLISCI 103, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C)
Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possible. But on what terms should we cooperate? How should we divide, as the philosopher John Rawls puts it, "the benefits and burdens of social cooperation"? Working primarily within the Anglo-American philosophical tradition, we'll discuss different answers to this big question as a way to bring together some of the most prominent debates in modern political philosophy. We'll study theories including utilitarianism, libertarianism, classical liberalism, and egalitarian liberalism, and we'll take on complex current issues like reparations for racial injustice, the gender pay gap, and responses to climate change. This class is meant to be an accessible entry point to political philosophy. No experience with political science or philosophy is required or assumed, and we will spend time on the strategy of philosophy as well: understanding how our authors make their arguments to better respond to them and make our own.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Coyne, B. (PI)
;
Ladendorf, T. (TA)
;
Luo, S. (TA)
;
Minsk, A. (TA)
;
Owen, M. (TA)
;
Ray, W. (TA)
;
Thomas, M. (TA)
PHIL 171P: Liberalism and its Critics (ETHICSOC 130, POLISCI 130)
In this course, students will learn and engage with the core debates that have animated political theory in modern times. What is the proper relationship between the individual, the community, and the state? Are liberty and equality in conflict, and, if so, which should take priority? What does justice mean in a large and diverse modern society? The title of the course, borrowed from a book by Michael Sandel, is 'Liberalism and its Critics' because the questions we discuss in this class center on the meaning of, and alternatives to, the liberal ideas that the basic goal of society should be the protection of individual rights and that some form of an egalitarian democracy is the best way to achieve this goal. The course is structured around two historical phenomena: one the one hand, liberal answers to these key questions have at times seemed politically and socially triumphant, but on the other hand, this ascendency has always been challenged and contested. At least one prior class in political theory, such as Justice (PS 103), Citizenship in the 21st Century (
College 102), or Democratic Theory (PS 234) is recommended but not required.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
PHIL 172: History of Modern Moral Philosophy (ETHICSOC 172, PHIL 272)
A critical exploration of some main forms of systematic moral theorizing in Western philosophy from Hobbes onward and their roots in ancient, medieval, and earlier modern ethical thought. Prerequistes are some prior familiarity with utilitarianism and Kantian ethics and a demonstrated interest in philosophy. Grads enroll in 272.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Hills, D. (PI)
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