Professor Nobis will be in his office Thursday from 11:30 to 1. 
He will be at class regular time, for review and discussion, Friday as well.  
He will email you your work back to you if you don't stop by. :)

NOTE: for most students, I do not know whether they did the blog assignment. This is because names are not on the blogs and/or print outs of the blogs and so I do not know who did what. If you did the assignment, I encourage you to make sure that I got it!

Remaining work:

1. A final quiz, covering a bit more on abortion (including the Warren article), as well as the new issues of absolute poverty and the treatment of animals (as well as the earlier discussion in EMP of those issues: see "Is there a duty to help the starving" in the chapter on Ethical Egoism and "Third Example: Non-human animals" in the first chapter on utilitiarianism). Study groups are encouraged.

12 noon class - exam is Wed., December 5 from 1-3 PM
1 PM class - exam is Monday, December 3, from 8 AM - 10 AM.


2. Remaining readings and detailed summaries/reactions:

- Mary Anne Warren, "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion" (RTD and online; due this Monday, November 19 in class and via Turnitin). Relevant issue: what are persons? ABORTION: Abortion argument worksheet.See also my Powerpoint on abortion.

- Peter Singer, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty," NY Times (RTD and online; due Monday after thanksgiving in class and via Turnitin): SEE THIS POWERPOINT.

• Check out THE TEN DOLLAR CLUB http://www.thetendollarclub.org/
• KIVA - MICROFINANCE http://www.kiva.org/
• Check out THE LIFE YOU CAN SAVE: http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/

- John Simmons, "Reasonable Humans and Animals": http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/veg.pdf 
due Monday after thanksgiving in class and via Turnitin)
-- some objections are here: http://philosophy302.blogspot.com/2007/04/worksheet-some-responses-to-singers.html

•  Read and study the "Even If You Like Meat" booklet: http://www.veganoutreach.org/advocacy/resources.html  
•  American Dietetic Association's Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets: J Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109:
  1266-1282.: http://www.eatright.org/WorkArea//DownloadAsset.aspx?id=8417

3. Paper: Pick the issue of world poverty or the treatment of animals. Write an essay where you 

• present an argument from Singer and/or Simmons (in logically valid form!) for the conclusion that you are morally obligated to donate something to help people living in absolute poverty (say, by joining the $10 club) or that you are morally obligated to not eat animals and so become a vegetarian. 
• Fully explain that argument, i.e., reasons why the premises should be accepted.
• Explain what either utilitarians OR Kantians should argue about this issue. 
• Consider at least five objections to the argument;
• Explain whether any of these objections are strong or not.

Your paper should have an introduction, a thesis about what YOU are obligated or not obligated to do, be well organized, and have a conclusion.

Due date: or any graduating seniors, this paper is due, in hardcopy (submitted in the philosophy and religion office) and via Turnitin, by Wednesday, December 5 at noon. 

For everyone else, this paper is due, in hardcopy (submitted in the philosophy and religion office) and via Turnitin, by Monday, at noon, December 10. Please feel free to send Dr. Nobis a draft for comments, and to submit early. 

Next semester I am offering (in addition to Introduction to Philosophical Ethics) a course in Philosophy of Education. Some of the main concerns in philosophy of education are these:
- What *is* education?
- What is to be an educated person?
- How are education and (job) training different and similar?
- What is the value in education? What kinds of value are there in education?
- What is learning? What is teaching?
- Ethical and social issues in education: do people have a right to education? What are fair and just educational practices?
And many, many more. Check out the table of contents below!

Our main text is Randall Curren's anthology Philosophy of Education. It is currently available used on Amazon for $10.
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Education-Anthology-Blackwell-Anthologies/dp/1405130237

About the book:

Philosophy of Education: An Anthology brings together the essential historical and contemporary readings in the philosophy of education.

• The readings have been selected for their philosophical merit, their focus on important aspects of educational practice and their readability.
• Includes classic pieces by Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, and Dewey.
• Addresses topical issues such as teacher professionalism and accountability, the commercialization of schooling, multicultural education, and parental choice.

Part I: The Nature and Aims of Education.
Introduction..
What is Education?.
1. Turning the Psyche (Plato).
2. Knowing How to Rule and be Ruled as Justice Demands (Plato).
3. An Educated Person Can Speak Well and Persuade (Isocrates).
4. The Exercise of Reason (John Locke).
5. The Education of Nature (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
6. The Democratic Conception of Education (John Dewey).
7. Education as Initiation (R. S. Peters).
8. Banking v. Problem-solving Models of Education (Paulo Freire).
Liberal Education and the Relationship between Education and Work.
9. Liberal v. "Mechanical" Education (Aristotle).
10. Learning the Value of Work (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
11. Education for Labor and Leisure (John Dewey).
12. Education and Standards of Living (Amartya Sen).
13. The Liberal Studies in a Global World (Otfried Höffe).
Autonomy and Exit Rights.
14. The Child’s Right to an Open Future (Joel Feinberg).
15. Justice, Autonomy, and the Good (Eamonn Callan).
16. "Mistresses of their Own Destiny": Group Rights, Gender, and Realistic Rights of Exit (Susan Moller Okin).
Part II: Educational Authority.
Introduction..
The Boundaries of Educational Authority.
17. Education and the Limits of Stata Authority (John Stuart Mill).
18. Democracy and Democratic Education (Amy Gutmann).
19. Justice, Inequality, and Home Schooling (Charles L. Howell).
20. Is Teaching a Profession: How Would We Know? (Kenneth A. Strike).
21. The Crisis in Education (Hannah Arendt).
The Commercialization of Schooling.
22. The Role of Government in Education (Milton Friedman).
23. Commercialization or Citizenship: The Case of Education (Colin Crouch).
24. Channel One, the Anti-Commercial Principle, and the Discontinuous Ethos (Harry Brighouse).
Part III: Educational Responsibilities.
Introduction..
Educational Adequacy and Equality.
25. The Law of Zero-correlation (Thomas Green).
26. Interpreting Equal Educational Opportunity (Amy Gutmann).
27. Whom Must We Treat Equally for Educational Opportunity to be Equal?: (Christopher Jencks).
Diversity and Nondiscrimination.
28. Culture, Subculture, Multiculturalism: Educational Options (K. Anthony Appiah).
29. The Promise of Racial Integration in a Multicultural Age (Lawrence Blum).
30. "Getting Religion": Religion, Diversity, and Community in Public and Private Schools (Meira Levinson and Sanford Levinson).
Impairment, Disability, and Excellence.
31. The Myths of Learning Disabilities (G. E. Zuriff).
32. A Capability Perspective on Impairment, Disability, and Special Needs (Lorella Terzi).
33. Educating Gifted Children (Laura Purdy).
34. Perfectionism and Educational Policy (Joel Kupperman).
Part IV: Teaching and Learning.
Teaching.
35. Real Teaching (Philip W. Jackson).
36. The Teacher’s Grasp of Subject-Matter (Israel Scheffler).
37. Understanding Students (David T. Hansen).
38. Beyond the Reflective Teacher (Terence H. McLaughlin).
Discipline and Care.
39. Social Control (John Dewey).
40. The One-Caring as Teacher (Nel Noddings).
41. School Sexual Harassment Policies: The Need for Both Justice and Care (Elizabeth Chamberlain and Barbara Houston).
Inquiry, Understanding, and Constructivism.
42. Learning by Discovery (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
43. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Many Faces of Constructivism (D.C. Phillips).
44. Constructivisms and Objectivity (Richard E. Grandy).
45. Education and the Advancement of Understanding (Catherine Z. Elgin).
Critical Thinking and Reasoning.
46. Reasoning with Children (John Locke).
47. Against Reasoning with Children (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
48. Education for Critical Thinking (Matthew Lipman).
49. The Reasons Conception of Critical Thinking (Harvey Siegel).
50. The Value of Reason (Emily Robertson).
Grading and Testing.
51. A Discourse on Grading (Robert Paul Wolff).
52. Coercion and the Ethics of Grading and Testing (Randall Curren).
53. What is at Stake in Knowing the Content and Capabilities of Children’s Minds? A Case for Basing High Stakes Tests on Cognitive Models (Stephen P. Norris, Jacqueline P. Leighton, and Linda M. Phillips).
Part V: Curriculum and the Content of Schooling.
Introduction..
Moral Education.
54. Moral Conventions and Moral Lessons (Robert K. Fullinwider).
55. Cultivating the Moral and Intellectual Virtues (Randall Curren).
56. Motivation by Ideal (J. David Velleman).
Curricular Controversies.
57. Should We Teach Patriotic History? (Harry Brighouse).
58. Should Creationism be taught in the Public Schools? (Robert T. Pennock).
59. Conflicting Philosophies of School Sex Education (Michael J. Reiss).
60. The Artistic–Aesthetic Curriculum (Maxine Greene).
Index.

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405130229.html

NOTE: for most students, I do not know whether they did the blog assignment. This is because names are not on the blogs and/or print outs of the blogs and so I do not know who did what. If you did the assignment, I encourage you to make sure that I got it!

Remaining work:

1. A final quiz, covering a bit more on abortion, as well as the new issues of absolute poverty and the treatment of animals (as well as the earlier discussion in EMP of those issues: see "Is there a duty to help the starving" in the chapter on Ethical Egoism and "Third Example: Non-human animals" in the first chapter on utilitiarianism). Day and time TBA since the schedule hasn't been revealed.

2. Remaining readings and detailed summaries/reactions:

- Mary Anne Warren, "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion" (RTD and online; due this Monday, November 19 in class and via Turnitin). Relevant issue: what are persons?

- Peter Singer, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty," NY Times (RTD and online; due Monday after thanksgiving in class and via Turnitin): SEE THIS POWERPOINT.

• Check out THE TEN DOLLAR CLUB http://www.thetendollarclub.org/
• Check out THE LIFE YOU CAN SAVE: http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/

- John Simmons, "Reasonable Humans and Animals": http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/veg.pdf 
due Monday after thanksgiving in class and via Turnitin)

•  Read and study the "Even If You Like Meat" booklet: http://www.veganoutreach.org/advocacy/resources.html  
•  This video:

3. Paper: Pick the issue of world poverty or the treatment of animals. Write an essay where you 

• present an argument from Singer and/or Simmons (in logically valid form!) for the conclusion that you are morally obligated to donate something to help people living in absolute poverty (say, by joining the $10 club) or that you are morally obligated to not eat animals and so become a vegetarian. 
• Fully explain that argument, i.e., reasons why the premises should be accepted.
• Explain what either utilitarians OR Kantians should argue about this issue. 
• Consider at least five objections to the argument;
• Explain whether any of these objections are strong or not.

Your paper should have an introduction, a thesis about what YOU are obligated or not obligated to do, be well organized, and have a conclusion.

Due date: as late as possible, TBA.

Posting Links to Blogs

If you would like, please post a link to your "educational teaching tool" blog here as a comment:

Here are links for some handouts we have been using:

Arguments on homosexuality:
http://philosophy302.blogspot.com/2007/02/common-arguments-on-homosexuality-mad.html

Arguments on abortion:
http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/abortion-worksheet.pdf

Questions about your webpage:

1. Did you produce a teaching tool? That is, could someone look at your webpage and learn how to be better identify and evaluate moral arguments? Does your page have a section where you explain the methods and skills involved in doing this?
2. Do your page have some kind of introduction?
3. Does it have some kind of conclusion?
4. Is the writing grammatically correct? Does the page look elegant and smooth (as opposed to clunky and awkward)?

Did you do everything in the initial assignment?

REVISION DUE THIS WEDNESDAY. :)

Monday, October 29, 2012

A group project assignment:

Create your own group of 3 or 4 students. If you cannot find a group, you will be assigned to one.

Create a webpage or blog (on Blogger, Wordpress, Google Sites, wherever) where you present and evaluate at least five arguments for the view that homosexuality is wrong.

You must also explain the methods that you will use to evaluate these arguments, in terms of finding conclusions, finding premises, making the arguments valid and identifying whether the arguments are sound or not (including using counterexamples to try to argument that general moral premises are false). On your page(s), you must:

Identify what you mean by the claim that 'homosexuality is wrong'; this might be different for different arguments.
Identify at least five arguments for that conclusion: pick arguments that you think are interesting, common and/or influential.
State these arguments in logically valid form.
For each argument, explain whether each premise is true or false and so whether the argument is sound or not.

Your webpage/blog should have an introduction and a conclusion and so forth.

The purpose for this assignment, instead of a paper, is for you to construct a public teaching tool to help people better find and evaluate moral arguments and then apply it to the issue of homosexuality. (Your teaching tool can, and probably will, be used with other issues later in the semester!).

Due in 2 weeks, Monday, Nov. 12. Please email Dr. Nobis the URL and bring a printout of the page to class!

Quiz Friday  (11/16): on EMP Ch. 2, 3, and Ch. 4. 

This includes the moral theories we’ve focused on since the last quiz (cultural relativism, divine command theory; we did not discuss simple subjectivism and emotivism), 
the skills and concepts involved in making arguments logically valid,
female genital mutilation (readings in EMP and "What's culture got to do with it?"); 
homosexuality (readings include EMP, RTD and the arguments worksheet, as well as video by John Corvino);
morality and religion (EMP), i.e., the Bible and morality and God's existence and morality (EMP), 
and a little bit on abortion.

Study guide due Wed 11/14, both online and in hardcopy.

Abortion arguments handout:

https://8e82e549-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/aphilosopher/abortion-worksheet.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7coNmEKCz1y7eXIGLcKaMjCLJGHLlrLJFqveL7MA510XZSS9aABKqZCHyIpSHmsk8gQ-rxc5yZTUQpF4_BFgO22ONWER3MFYOBMNvCpMyfZKKnCJ-YNOSf_41msKLQTUW5E31Z-_2Ecg3GHWl0zZ2HfypTvBp1kg_MLpm3jyey2tcN7zt-BJx7fVXpaX2j11PyyyCqzR9i5uskHUFrLlfNJ_Ten2kF9vXtpscngCsN8frGz4rbs%3D&attredirects=0

extra credit event next Tuesday pm Fwd: "Healthcare as a Right," two November lectures, Agnes Scott College

Lecture Title: “Is There a Right to Health? What is it a Right to?”

 There are strong grounds for a right to health and health care based on the protection of fair equality of opportunity. The right entails fairly general preventive interventions, both at a population and individual level, as well as curative, and rehabilitative services. Exactly what the health care entitlements are, given technological and resource constraints, is best spelled out through a fair, deliberative process. 

Norman Daniels, Ph.D, is Mary B Saltonstall Profesor and Professor of Ethics and Population Health at Harvard School of Public Health. His recent books include Just Health (Cambridge 2008) and a second edition of Setting Limits Fairly (with James Sabin) (Oxford, 2008). His work is on aspects of justice and health policy – e.g., disparities, priority setting, access to care, global health, foundations for a right to health or health care.

 . ..

Two events in the Agnes Scott College ethics program “Healthcare as a Right” speaker series are scheduled for November.  

Norman Daniels will speak on November 13, Ani Satz on November 27. (See attached flyer for details; I’ve also attached a map.)

Please share this flyer with colleagues and students who might be interested.

 

 

EXTRA CREDIT

Sex, Sin & Scripture" will be comprised of three parts:
1) Thursday, November 8th 5:00-6:30 pm - Intolerance Museum: Kilgore South Loung will be turned into a museum full of exhibits which depict the effects of a theology which operates from a sex negative paradigm.

2) Sunday, November 11th 7:30 pm - For The Bible Tells Me So: In Nabrit Mapp Mcbay Lecture Room 2, a documentary will be shown which will help to enrich the discussion regarding the intersection between homosexuality and religion.

3) Tuesday, November 13th 7:00 pm - The Needed Conversation: In Sale Hall Chapel, a panel of seven clergymen from different Christian denominations will discuss the intersection between religion and sexuality from a sex neutral paradigm.
Attached is a Jpeg of the flyer for the program. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think may be interested.

S