3 WEEK SESSION May 30, 2017 – June 18, 2017
243-1 Ethics in Business
8:55-11:35 MTWRF
Lecturer
Suppose that, after many years of hard work, you become an executive in an international corporation. Should you build sweatshops in parts of the world that have weaker protections for workers and the environment? What practices should be prohibited by your corporation�s sexual harassment policies? Should you use affirmative action in your hiring practices? If you figure out how to engage in insider trading without getting caught, should you do it? Is it ever permissible for you to deceive your adversaries (in negotiations) or customers (through misleading advertisements)? If you have obligations beyond maximizing shareholder value, what might explain such obligations? In this course, we will evaluate a variety of competing views about these questions and more.
First 4 WEEK SESSION June 19, 2017 – July 16, 20167
211-1 Elementary Logic
8:55-11:55 MTWR
Titelbaum
Suppose I say, “If no one moved the cheese since last night, it’s in the fridge. If I didn’t move the cheese, then no one did. I didn’t move the cheese. So it’s still in the fridge.” This argument concerning the whereabouts of the cheese contains some premises followed by a conclusion. The argument is structured so that if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true as well.
In this course we will represent arguments in symbols to reveal their structure, then study argumentative structures that guarantee a true conclusion from true premises. We will also learn how to prove that an argument with a particular structure is valid. The techniques we will learn are necessary for every area of contemporary philosophy, and are relevant to areas of economics, mathematics, computer science, rhetoric, and the law.
341-1 Contemporary Moral Issues (fulfills Comm B requirement)
1:10-3:50 MTWR
Instructor
You have often asked yourself the following question: �In this situation, what ought I (or someone else, or we) to do?� The question is sometimes very difficult to answer. Different considerations may seem to bear on the answer, and we are often unsure which considerations matter, how much they matter, and how they are to be weighed against each other. In this course, we will take a careful look at some situations in which there is great controversy about the correct answer to this question. The course is broadly divided into three parts. In part one, we will introduce you to some tools and methods of moral reasoning and briefly introduce some prominent moral theories. In part two, we will put these tools to use in analyzing (and, hopefully, making some progress in solving) some difficult, real-world moral problems. In part three, we will take an extended look at a special topic that has received attention in the recent philosophical literature.
Second 4 WEEK SESSION July 17, 2017 – August 13, 2017
210-1 Reason in Communication (fulfills QRA requirement)
1:10-3:50 MTWR
Masrour
The aim of this course is to help you develop your critical skills in recognizing, comprehending, evaluating, and engaging in contemporary forms of reasoning. We will be paying special attention to reasoning in mass communication media.
241-1 Introductory Ethics
1:10-3:50 MTWR
Steinberg
In deciding how to act, we frequently guide ourselves by principles, which forbid or require various kinds of action. Moral philosophy is the attempt to systematically explore a number of questions which arise in connection with such principles. We may ask, for example: What is it for a principle to be a moral principle? Is morality a matter of personal or cultural preference? Is God the source of morality? Why should I be moral? Is there any way for us to know what one ought to do in a given circumstance? In this class, we will explore what philosophers have had to say about these issues.