Purpose & Course Structure:    

 

     First off, let me introduce myself. My name is Seth Tichenor & I work as a philosophy professor at Linfield College's McMinnville Campus as well as for Linfield's DCE.   My areas of scholarly specialization are in the philosophy of religion, in East & South Asian philosophy, in the philosophy of education, in Aesthetics, and in Ethics. Most of the classes I teach are in one of these areas, or in something closely related to them.

   Having said that, however, I would like to add that I tend to be something of a generalist by nature.   This comes out in my scholarly work and in the courses that I teach.   I enjoy exploring how philosophical concepts and principles apply to everyday life, and hearing how people relate apparently disparate ideas and experiences to one another in a novel, insightful and constructive ways. This, I suppose, has been one of the biggest draws for me to philosophy generally, and also to the DCE in particular.

*) Some Thoughts on the Nature, Structure & Ideals of the Course:

   It might be helpful to say a little something about the rationale behind this course. As you probably know, Linfield College is very proud and very serious about its liberal arts tradition. At the heart of this tradition is the idea that education cannot simply be about the further accumulation of facts and skills. These are necessary, but not sufficient ends for such an education. Rather, a liberal arts education finds its full expression in an evolving and recursive process of inquiry about one's self, and the world around him or her.   To this end I think that there is potential for a course like this to be useful. It can be useful in a couple of ways:

• First of all, this course provides an opportunity to reflect upon the nature and purpose of the skills you've acquired in work and life in general. The benefit of this opportunity is that it allows you to consider not just what you do, but for what & for whom you do your work. After all, you are not merely a machine programmed to efficiently perform “accounting” or “management” oriented tasks. You are a skilled member of society with the capacity to use these skills in a creative and constructive way, both for yourself as well as your community. Thus, having an opportunity to reflect on why you use the skills you have & towards what end you use them will, hopefully, help you to use them in a richer & more effective way.

• Secondly, in reflecting upon the nature and purpose of these skills, you have a chance to avoid a problem that accompanies the acquisition and mastery of almost any skill – namely, falling into a professional “rut”. The process of getting into this sort of rut often goes something like this. A) Initially, we are shown how to perform our skills, and we work hard to do so well. B) After we achieve some measure of competence, we begin to form habits around the performance of our work.   That is, we begin to mimic actions that we've mastered because they've demonstrated their efficiency in the past. C) As these habits form we find ourselves putting less critical or creative thought into what we're doing or how well we're doing it. D) And thus, we find ourselves in a situation where we perform our skills in the same way & with the same short-comings as we always have. In other words, our success in certain aspects of our skills ends up reinforcing (often unconsciously) our short-comings in other parts of the same skill. I suppose getting in a “rut” like this is a natural, and perhaps even inevitable, aspect of performing a skill. It does not, however, have to be the boundary that it so often ends up being in the successful performance of that skill.   You can see, just from looking at how it forms, that a rut can be overcome by asking questions about what we're doing, and by challenging ourselves to think in critical and creative ways about how & why we're doing it. In this respect, reflecting upon one's skills is akin to both maintaining and experimenting with one's tools. It allows us to keep our skills from degenerating into a professional rut, and allows us to do and be skilled professionals in ways that, perhaps, we may not have imagined was part of the skill at all when we began to pursue it.

• In order to look into these short-comings, benefits & and professional aims, in general, we need to look at how they come about.   Therefore, an extensive portion of this course is dedicated to looking into the history & development of western moral theory.   Now, I imagine that, at first anyway, this might seem a little bit obtuse.   However, looking at what, exactly, moral theory is & how it develops is crucial to looking at how into plays into the more “practical” dimensions of ethical & professional life.   After all, if we begin to talk about the moral problems of, say, a lawyer lying for the benefit of her client, then shouldn't we have a clear understanding of what, precisely, is wrong with her (or anyone) lying, in general.   For that matter, shouldn't we have an idea of what, exactly “lying” is.   In order to understand something like this, in a real & thorough way, we have to look rather deeply into how & why we come to the moral positions we do.   None of the ideas we'll be addressing come to us, or anyone else through a vacuum.   They emerge & develop through the reflections & conversations that humans have had with one another for hundreds & hundreds of years.   Thus, in order to understand what they are, and what we are in relation to them, we must understand their nature & development.   This is what is behind the historical introduction to moral theory. And, given is “basic” role in all of this, it is where we are going to start off.

So, these are three of the central issues I hope we can cultivate through this course.  I’m sorry if all this is a bit wordy, but I wanted to get across some of my thoughts on all of this, and anticipate some of your concerns. I hope that we’ll have a chance to discuss some of these ideas throughout the course.

One last thing I ought to make some mention of is my role in all of this.   As you know, this course has been designed and has been taught in the past (that is, in person) as a seminar-like style.   What this has meant is that most of the information that is to be gleaned from this course will come from discussion and class analysis, rather than lectures.   Although there may be regular periods of time when I “take the floor”(or the screen as the case may be) in order to present or clarify pertinent information, much of the momentum for this course will come from each of you.   Active participation is crucial to the success of this sort of class, and really the basis for passing the course.   An ideal seminar is run by the participants energetically, efficiently, and courteously.   My role, in turn, becomes one of both informer and facilitator.   In other words, my job as the professor of this class will not exclusively be to provide introductory lectures on the topics at hand.   Rather, I   will be responsible for raising the initial questions for threads, and providing information, clarification and guidance to the group as needed. Whether this seminar can reach its “ideal” level, is then, largely in the hands of the participants.

So then, if I were to summarize this course, I suppose I would say something like this.   This course is intended to be a study in theoretical and applied ethics, and will be divided into two parts. The first part of this course will be a historical introduction to the major themes in Western moral theory.   During this section we will be looking at a collection of classical & contemporary western philosophers on some of the central issues, interpretations & developments in moral philosophy. The second part of this course will be devoted to investigating the ethical premises of "professionalism", and the theories, positions & assessments of professional ethics.

 

*) Assignments & Requirements:

 I had imagined that much of our work will be done through an on-going (& on-line) conversation.  Essentially, what will happen is I will post a question for consideration and discussion. You will have a certain amount of time (usually about on week) to discuss and respond to the question, as well as to each others remarks, and my remarks. After the allotted time, I will then post a new question for us to discuss. Given that the course is, basically, this ongoing conversation regarding our readings & previous discussions, you will have a couple of requirements

• Class Participation: At the beginning of every week, I will post a question or series of questions, along with an explanation of that weeks reading.  This question is intended to “seed” the conversation, a conversation that is to be carried on by you. You are required to participate in our conversation (i.e. post some thoughts, remarks, or relevant commentary) at least twice per question. You may also suggest further readings or websites that you find relevant to the conversation. I will try to direct some of these discussions into using critiques for the midterm & final exams.  It is important that your thoughts be posted by the last day of the week assigned.
• Exams: Second, toward the end of the first & second sections of the course (see course schedule) I will ask each of you to write two extended responses (2 – 4 pages) to a series of questions that have to do with what we have just covered. Each series of questions is, in effect, the midterm & Final exam, respectively. I’ll let you know a bit more of what I have in mind as the course progresses.

Grading:

     I will determine your grades on the basis of your performance on your Mid-term exam (33%), Final exam (33%), and class participation (33%).

  Course Texts:

·          Wagner, Michael, ed. An Historical Introduction to Ethics. (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1991).

·          Wueste, Daniel, ed. Professional Ethics & Social Responsibility (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River NJ, 1994).

·          A couple of JSTOR articles  (JSTOR is the on-line journal reference & it is available through Linfield College Libraries website).

Course Schedule:

 

PART ONE: THE HISTORY OF MORAL THEORY
DISCUSSION SECTION 1: 1/5 – 1/8 An Introduction to Moral Philosophy.	Readings from Plato & Aristotle (pg. 30 - 68)
DISCUSSION SECTION 2: 1/9 – 1/12 An Introduction to Moral Philosophy.	Readings from David Hume , Immanuel Kant & John Stuart Mill (pg. 148 - 172).
DISCUSSION SECTION 3: 1/12 – 1/15 An introduction to Moral Philosophy.	An Introduction to Moral Philosophy . Readings from Desiderius Erasmus , John Locke , Thomas Hobbes , John Stuart Mill ( pg. 125 - 147, 172 - 173).
DISCUSSION SECTION 4: 1/16 – 1/19 MIDTERM EXAM	Responses due on Jan 19 th by 10:00 PM PST.

PART TWO: PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
DISCUSSION SECTION 5: 1/19–1/22 Professional Ethics & Social Responsibility:	John Hardwig - "Toward an Ethic of Exxpertise" (pg. 83-101, b) Larry May – “Conflict of Interest”  (pg.67 – 82)
DISCUSSION SECTION 6: 1/23 – 1/26 Look up on EBSCOhost	a) John Morse – “ The Missing Link Between Virtue Theory & Business Ethics ”, b) John Boatright – “ Ethics for a Post-Enron America ”.
DISCUSSION SECTION 7: 1/26 – 1/29 Professional Ethics & Social Responsibility.	a) Kenneth Winston – “ Necessity & Choice in Political Ethics ” (pg. 37 – 66), b) Serena Stier – “Legal Ethics: A Paradigm ” (pg. 139 – 157).
DISCUSSION SECTION 8 : 1/30 – 2/2 Professional Ethics & Social Responsibility	a) Robert Baum – “ Engineers & the Public ” (pg. 121 – 137), b) William Maker – “ Scientific Autonomy & Scientific Responsibility ” (pg. 219 – 242).
DISCUSSION SECTION 9 : . 2/2 – 2/5 Look up on JSTOR	Look up on JSTOR : a) Chris Higgins - " Teaching & the Good Life " , b) Elias Baumgarten - " Ethics in the Academic Profession: A Socratic View
DISCUSSION SECTION 10 : 2/6 – 2/8 FINAL EXAM	FINAL EXAM – Responses due on Feb 8 th by 10:00 PM PST.