Applied Ethics of Peace, Justice and Human Rights

This is a course in applied ethics geared toward 1) introducing students to major schools of ethical thought in the western tradition, 2) helping students understand ethical arguments about peace, justice and human rights, 3) preparing students to formulate their own creative approaches to ethical problems, 4) introducing students to philosophy of law, which is intertwined in a complex way with the western tradition of ethical thinking, and 5) facilitating an approach to argument that emphasizes diplomacy, perspective-taking and empathy over the search for the one right answer or the infallible argument.The semester will begin with a survey of major ethical theories, and we will use those theories to help us discuss real-world issues bearing on peace, justice and human rights, such as: civil disobedience, abortion, killing and letting die, humanitarian intervention, human rights activism, animal rights, environmental protection, economic injustice, race- and gender-based injustice, public health, private property, global capitalism, punishment, clemency and execution, international criminal tribunals, just and unjust war, and whether violence is ever justified. Students will be encouraged to bring other issues of interest into the class for discussion. Along the way, we will consider some critiques of the western tradition of ethical and legal thinking. We will also be visited in class by some of the scholars whose work we will be reading: George Yancy, Mark Drumbl, Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke