Day 71

1.  Document to edit as a class: Re: Philosophers and their theories

Day 64: Seminar prep

Seminar

Day 61 & 62

1.  Watch the movie Never Let Me Go and continue creating your questions and responding to them for the seminars next week.

Here is the seminar schedule:
Monday:
Neil
Morgan
Megan
Caitlin
Bree
Rachel
Katie
Dayna
Amelia

Tuesday:
Ashlynne
Shannon
Barbara
Brandi
Nathaniel
Christian
Alex
Blake
Carrie

Day 57: Practice Test

Practice Test

Day 55: Finish Ethics

1.  Finish the work from last week.

Plan for the next two weeks:
Tuesday Nov. 27: Test Prep
Wed Nov. 28: Test
Thurs. Nov 29: Seminar hand out - prep questions
Fri. Nov. 30: seminar prep
Monday Dec. 3: Movie for seminar
Tues. Dec. 4: movie for seminar
Wed. Dec. 5: seminar prep/unit review
Thurs. Dec. 6: Seminar group 1
Fri. Dec 7: Seminar group 2

Day 54: Test prep and finish videos

see title

Day 53: Faking?

1.  Finish the video from yesterday and continue with the discussions.

Day 52: Ethics in Photos and Videos

1.  Lying, Cheating, Stealing: Kid Rock
1b.  Faking the Grade
2.  Freedom of Expression and Censorship: Twitter 
3.  War  Gaza Strip   Obama
4.  Euthanasia  Tony Nicklinson
                         His death
                         Michele
5.  What should we do?  Agree?  Disagree?

Day 51: Chapter 14

Thank you to Morgan who found this video about the morality of babies.

1.  Read chapter 14 and complete question #1 on page 304.

Day 46-50: Yes/No

Shannon
Morgan
Katie   Document
Dayna
Carrie

Day 45: Ethics Review

Ethics Ideas

Day 41-44

Class time in the library to work on Yes/No presentations.

Yes/No Project Presentation

1.  My examples
2.  Student example  Presentation    Document
Example 2   Document 2
3.  Evaluation

Day 39: Ethics

YES/NO presentation.

Day 35: Text

1.  Text work while I work with individual students.

Day 33: Intro to Ethics

1.  Is there such a thing as a selfless act?  Phoebe

2.  Small group discussions:
  Are Moral Choices Possible?
  Why Do the Right Thing?
  Can People Be Good Without a Common Idea of Good?
  How Should the Rightness or Wrongness of Actions Be Determined?

3.  Ethics Vocab List:
Vocabulary for Ethics

Humanism
An approach that emphasizes the human or secular (non-religious)realm over the religious or spiritual realm.

Theories of action
Theories that deal with how people should act.

Theories of character (virtue theories)
Theories that deal with questions about character traits that are morally good and morally bad.

Theories of value
Theories that deal with questions about the things people value.

Moral Agent
Someone who is capable of thinking about a moral problem, making a decision how to act, and taking responsibility for this action.

Divine Command Theory
Right and wrong are defined by the commands of the supreme being.

Divine Command Ethicists
A person whose actions are defined by the commands of the supreme being.

Utilitarianism (Developed by John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham)
Morally good choices are those that result in the greatest good (amount of happiness) for the greatest number of people.

Kantian Ethicists
Believe that moral choices must be judged, not by their consequences, but by the good will of the moral agent. 

Egoists
Believe that people should act in their own interest.

Intuitionists
Believe that truths, and therefore morals, are understood by intuition (an experience that is independent of reasoning).

Objective
Knowledge that is supported by evidence.

Subjective
Opinions that depend on personal feelings, experience, or thought.


5.  Read and take notes on pp. 242 - 259 of the text.

Day 32: Gwynne Dyer

Guest speaker Gwynne Dyer.

Day 31: work period

Please continue to work on ALFQ. 
Closure and due date is Monday October 22 at 1:00 pm.

You must sign in your work with me.

Days 28-30: Seminars 1,2 and 3

Seminars

Day 27: Seminar prep

1.  Seminar prep

Here is the plan for next week.  On the day of your seminar your 3 questions and answers are DUE at the END OF THE CLASS.  Please remember that you will not be able to go and print them off, add to them etc.  You will need to have your Qs and As during the seminar so that you may use them.

ALFQ:  Due on THURSDAY October 18
CLOSURE:  Friday October 19

Seminar: Monday:
Morgan
Carrie-Ann
Ashlynne
Barbara
Amelia
Shannon
Neil

Tuesday:
Katie
Blacke
Nick
Caitlin
Teri
Connor
Rachel
Bree

Wednesday:
Fabiola
Dayna
Christian
Alex
Nathaniel
Maghan
Brandi

Day 25 and 26

1.  Seminar Prep

I will work with anyone who would like some feedback on their societal links and theory links on Friday.  We will also decide seminar groups on Friday.

A reminder that ALFQ is due next Thursday October 18.  Closure date is October 19.

Seminar questions and answers are due at the end of the period, before you leave class, on the day you participate in the seminar.

Day 24: Seminar information

1.  Seminar: what is it?  How does it work?
2.  Seminar  
Documents

Day 23: review

1.  Review theories and main ideas about supreme being(s). 

Day 22: Popcorn cont ...

Finish Life is Beautiful.

Day 21: Popcorn anyone?

Movie: Life is Beautiful

Day 20: SSHHhhhhhhh

Reading period for ALFQ.

Day 19: University Fair

Enjoy the university fair!

For those people in class this will be a reading period.

Day 18: Text Work

1.  Chapter 8: Notes

Day 17: My absence and questions

1.  Discussion questions regarding Hitchens on Studio Q.
2.  Number 4 from day 15.

Day 16: Hitchens

1.  Numbers 2- 4 from yesterday.

Day 15: Supreme Being

1.  3 corners: I believe in a Supreme Being, I question the existence of a Supreme Being, I do not believe in a Supreme Being.  Think, move, pair, share.
2.  10 Commandments ... other sacred documents.  How do religious/spiritual texts shape our lives?
3.  Are you free to believe:  two sides YES vs. NO
4.  Hitchens in Studio Q
His thoughts on a Supreme Being

Your thoughts?  What part of Hitchens' writings do you believe/agree with?

Day 14: Work Period

1.  See above

Day 13: Work Period

1.  See above

Day 12: Personhood, Animals as Persons and Metaphysics CTQ

1.  Complete text work from yesterday. Personhood Theories

2.  Today is an in-class work period to complete your first Metaphysics Critical Thinking Question (it's due next Tuesday).
Evaluation

A few thoughts about CTQs:

What your work should address:

Clarity: Could you elaborate further on that point? Could you express that point in another way? Could you give an illustration? Could you give me an example? (From our point of view, if a statement of yours is unclear we cannot determine whether it is accurate or relevant. In fact we cannot tell anything about it because we don't yet know what it is saying).

Accuracy: Is that really true? How could we check that? How could we find out if that is true?

Precision: Could you give me more details? Could you be more specific?

Relevance: How is that connected to the question? How does that bear on the issue?

Depth: How well does your answer address the complexities in the question? How are you taking into account the problems in the question? Is that dealing with the most significant factors?

Breadth: Do you need to consider another point of view? Do you need to question your own assumptions? Is there another way to look at this question? What would this look like from a conservative standpoint? What would this look like from a more liberal standpoint?  What would it look like from the point of view of someone who’s opinion on the matter is the polar opposite of yours?

Logic and Reasoning: Does this really make sense? Does it follow logically from what you are saying? If yes, can you explain how it follows logically?  (When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts together into some order. When the combinations of thoughts are mutually supporting and make sense in combination, the thinking is considered to be "logical".

Comprehension and Understanding: Is your work in your own words?  Are you also relying on your own ideas? Do you demonstrate that you know what you are talking about? Can you discuss what you are talking about with some degree of authority? Have you covered all the bases?



The issue of dolphins and other cetaceans being given the status of "persons" and thus being granted human rights that we (people) all enjoy is highlighted in the BBC article.  The issue is, of course, also raised in the textbook and we have discussed it in class often - also, have another look at the Bonobo Monkey video of a couple of days ago.

Day 11: Personhood Notes

1.  Complete yesterday's work.
2.  Text reading:
Read pp. 133 - 139. Takes notes on the THEORIES and CRITERIA that each of these philosophers sets out.

John Locke
Daniel Dennett
Mary Anne Warren
Annette Baier
(Personal Identity)
Derek Parfit

Day 10: Personhood in Virginia

1. Numbers 5-8 from Day 9.
2.  Peter Singer: on personhood .....  do you agree with him?  What criteria that he provides to you agree with?
3.  The other point of view.  Do you more fully agree with this point of view?  What criteria provided to you agree with when designating a person?
4.  Text of Virginia Personhood Bill:  Think, Pair, Share
5.  Conclusion:  What did Virginia ultimately decide?

Day 9: Theories of Reality and Self

1.  Review theories of reality from yesterday's text work.
2.  Theories of self: groups to present and explain.
3.  What is a person?  Define and present.
4.  Continuum of personhood: where do these animals fit on the continuum?
5.  Video: Orangutan  Redefine a person?
6.  Video: Susan Savage-Rumbaugh Redefine a person?
7.  What is more important to personhood; mind (consciousness) or matter (brain and body)?  Discuss and respond.
8.  List your 5 criteria for personhood.

Day 8: Metaphysics

1.  Questions
2.  Text work from yesterday.

Day 7: Metaphysics

1.  Big Questions review.
2.  See yesterday.

Day 6: Videos and Meta intro

1.  Complete the video presentations from yesterday.

2.  Intro to metaphysics: Dr. Frances Gray      Descartes

3.  Watch this Survivor video .  What is reality and what is perception in this television show?

4.  Read Plato's Allegory of the Cave (pp. 8-9 of the text).  Write one question a captive may ask and one question the escapee may ask.  Put your post it note on the appropriate chart paper.

5. Text reading: chap. 6 pg. 112-119, and pg. 122 & 125.  Take notes on the following:

• idealism
• realism
• materialism
• monoism
• dualism
• determinism
• ontology
• subtance theory
• bundle theory
• narrative structure
• project theory

Day 5: Your videos

1.  Let's watch the following videos and hear from your peers as they explain under which discipline (Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics) their video applies.

Barbara
Caitlin
Ashlynne
Amelia   (watch 1:43 - 4:16)
Blake
Teri
Connor
Neil
Brandi
Rachel
Christian
Shannon
Nick
Fabiola
Megan
Katie
Morgan
Dayna
Carrie
Carolyn
Bree
Nathaniel

Day 4: Room 211

1.  Work on assignments from Day 3.

Philosophy is Pictures is due on Tuesday.

Closure date (with - 5% a day) is Friday.

Day 3: Your videos

1.  In the comm tech lab, room 211, find a YouTube video and explain it's connection to one of the three Philosophy disciplines above.  Paste the url and write your explanation using this link.

2.  Read the textbook pp. 2-9 (in Chapter 1) and take notes on the following
•    Descartes
•    Aristotle
•    Plato
•    Jaspers
•    Materialists
•    Autonomy

A note about notes: it is in your very best interest to take thorough and organized notes for all aspects of this course.  It's a 12U course and it's challenging - you will need to continually refer to your notes to get ideas, theories and quotes from different philosophers for all of your marked work and for the exam.  Start good notes now and you will thank yourself later, honest!


3.  Please read pp. 18-19 of the text (the sections on Metaphysics, Epistemology and Ethics only).  To demonstrate your understanding of these three topics complete your first marked assignment, "Philosophy in Pictures." 

Day 2: Questions asked and Answered

1.  Big Ideas in Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics; share your ideas and thoughts from the videos yesterday.  Watch videos.
2.  A-Z's of Philosophy ... your guide.
3.  Your questions ... think, pair, share. Under which of the three units do they fall?

Day 1: Welcome!

1.  Why study philosophy?  Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, explain.
2.  You will need to think outside of the box
3.  Ideas, people, events, etc ... the A-Z guide to philosophy.
4.  Your big questions.

For tonight and tomorrow at school . . . first of all you will NEED a Gmail account for this course - go and make one for yourself if you don't already have one.  Please make it as close to your first and last name as possible - mine is amykovich@gmail.com.

Assignments will be completed using googledocs (presentation, forms etc).

HOMEWORK:

1.  Complete this form .

2.  Watch these three videos (you can see the text of these talks (subtitles) by clicking the button directly below the video indicating "27 Languages"):

Metaphysics
Epistemology
Ethics

Write your impressions of each video; what you agreed with, what you question, how the main idea(s) fit in your life.  Be prepared to share and hand in your ideas tomorrow.

DAY 79 Practice Performance Task 2 and Review Stuff

Same as yesterday with a new Practice Performance Task.

First, of course, we "took up" yesterday's work and you all made suggestions as to important elements from Philosophy to include in your work.  We'll do the same on Monday.

Also, I distributed review information and an old exam so if you want to start studying (your exam is exactly 17 days away) this weekend you can!

Practice Performance Task 2

Exam Review Materials

DAY 78 Practice Performance Task 1

Today you did the first of three Practice Performance Tasks.  Your real one will be done next week, probably Tuesday and Wednesday, and it will be the same format with different articles to interpret

Practice Performance Task 1

DAY 77 Continue with Lives Lived

Continue with yesterday's work.

DAY 76 A Life Worth Living

Today we continued our study of Ethics and the ideas of the Life Worth Living and A Good Life.

Here is a copy of Lives Lived: the Story of the Life of Nick Sacuto.

Here is a copy of your personal Lives Lived assignment.

DAY 75 - Immanuel Kant and Questions that Matter

At the same time as Mill/Bentham's Greatest Good for the Greatest Number of People school of thought arose, so did an equally important idea emerge: ethics should consider the INTENTION of the action, not the outcome.

Immanuel Kant - similar to Descartes, he suggested that the only intrinsically good thing in existence is a Good Will.

Kant said, "Good Will accords with Duty."  And duty is, "That which is rational."  Matches up with Aristotle and Descartes.

The idea that the only good is a good will is called, Categorical Imperative ("Absolute Command").

"Act only according to that rule whereby you can at the same time WILL that it should become a universal law of nature."

He meant that when faced with making a moral choice, people with a good will MUST choose the course of action that they would want EVERYONE to choose all of the time.  e.g. if, in a certain circumstance a good person would tell the truth, then you must ask whether telling the truth should become a universal law.  Or lying - in a different situation when telling a lie is a better choice, that it's ok for everyone to lie all the time.

"Act in such a way that you treat humanity always as an END and never as a MEANS."  (Opposite of Mill/Bentham).  He means here that people must respect one another and not use others.  When people respect one another, lying is morally wrong because it denies other people's autonomy - their ability to freely make rational decisions on the basis of a good will.  Someone who has been lied to does not have accurate information on which to base moral choices.  Lying also uses other people as a means of achieving the liar's end or purpose, and it ignores the purpose of the person who is being lied to.

Kant believed that we can make NO exceptions to the categorical imperative.  e.g. we must tell the truth under all circumstances, even if it leads to bad consequences.  This is a duty to tell the truth.  He also called this the "Deontological Theory" from the Greek "deon" = duty & "logos" = reason.

Strengths in this theory are impartiality and good intent.  If one acts with good intention then they should be judged morally right even if there are bad consequences.

Weakness in this theory is that it relies on reason and follows strict rules without consideration for compromise and making connections with others.

e.g. You are dying of a disease that can be cured but you have no money for the cure - should you steal it?  Kant would say no.  Mill/Bentham and many others would say yes.

Repeat of Kant in 3 Minutes - watch from the 30 second mark, not before.



Some BIG Questions on Ethics include areas such as:
 - Lying
 - Cheating
 - Stealing
 - Censorship
 - Freedom of Expression
 - War
 - Euthanasia
 - Genetic Engineering
 - The Environment
 - Conservation
 - Preservation
 - Treatment of non-human Animals
 - Intellectual Property
 - Business Practices
 - Advertising
 - Gender and Sexuality

Complete the Handout on Ethical Issues.

DAY 74 Existentialism and Utilitarianism

In continuing to address different Ethics Schools of Thought, let's look at Existentialism.

This is a modern idea wherein a person must make individual moral choices and take full responsibility for those choices.  The belief is that absolute moral values do NOT exist (Virtue Ethicists say they do exist).

For Existentialists, AUTHENTICITY (being true to oneself when making moral choices) is the only true virtue worth striving for.

Soren Kierkegaard (19thC Danish Philosopher).  Said that people must make and judge their own moral choices.  People must move beyond judging their actions according to reason or the standards of society and must be accountable only to God.  To achieve this one must be authentic.

Authentic choices are CONSISTENT in:
1. Perception
2. Thought
3. Action

One who is inauthentic will not create him/herself and does not live independently.  For example, if you are attending school, this year or next, because it's the right thing to do in your parents' eyes, is INAUTHENTIC.  But if it's your choice to be in school, then that is an authentic idea.

Existentialism comes from Kierk's focus on individual existence - thus the term, "Existentialism."

Quick Video on Kierkegaard.

Friedrich Nietzsche urged people to make their own moral choices rather than to accept, unthinkingly, the values of the majority or other influential people in their lives (e.g. parents, peers).   He said that people should NOT think that they are accountable to God ("God is Dead" - mentioned several times in different writings by Nietzsche - he did not mean the literal death of an existing god, rather he meant the death of the shared cultural belief in the existence of God in Europe).  Rather, he said that because universal belief in God was fading, and with it, the universal values provided by that faith, people must determine their own values.

Jean-Paul Sartre is the most well-known Existentialist - he lived through WWII in Europe and because of that experience he believed that there was, in fact, no higher purpose for our life.  He said that there is no grand master plan and that human existence is a random occurrence.  Because of this, Sartre declared that existence precedes essence.  By this he meant that:

People exist first (bodily form) and then we make are own essence by defining ourselves, determining what we will be and choosing our own values.


For existentialists, everything is a matter of choice - feelings, beliefs, actions, attitudes.  But there are no moral guidelines that are universally accepted to guide you along the way.  This provides great freedom but also great responsibility.  In other words you have no one to blame but yourself!

This raised the German term, "angst", meaning "anxiety".  Under existentialism, where you are responsible for your own choices, you may feel much anxiety and pressure as you weigh the consequences of your moral choices.  Raises the pradox, "We are condemned to be free."

Existentialists believe that a good person recognizes their own personal freedom AND responsibility and thus makes authentic choices.

Robert Holmes (modern thinker) wrote:
"Adolescence brings an unsettling awareness that the comforting framework of values taken for granted as children is not fixed and unchanging.   This moment is crucial.  If people refuse to accept their freedom as they grow out of their childhood faith, they choose a life of self-deception."




Divine Command Ethics
Throughout history we have linked moral choices to religious beliefs, everywhere.  The idea that the supreme being defines right and wrong is - Divine Command Theory.

The belief is that there is a god or gods and that their commands are written in sacred texts.

Throughout history ethicists have grappled with the question, "Is something right because it is favoured by the gods, or do the gods favour it because it is right?"

A great Bible story is Abraham's following God's command to kill his son, Isaac.  Abraham was stopped at the last second by god and was rewarded for his faith in God's command, violating community ethics for God's command, the higher power.  Was Abraham's faith in God justified?

Aquinas argued that we must follow God's law through reason.

Unfortunately throughout history some religious extremists have viewed their own holy texts as the only correct ones and have interpreted them to justify political or other community actions.

Utilitarianism:    Quick video on utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stewart Mill (1806 -  ) - consequences of moral acts are the focus here.  Utility or usefulness is the base for the word, Utilitarianism.

Greatest Good for the Greatest # of People is the ultimate goal for Utilitarians.  Good things are pleasure, good, happiness and the prevention of mischief, pain, evil and unhappiness.

Bentham's Hedonistic Calculus:
1. Intensity - How strong will the pain or pleasure be?
2. Duration - How long will the pleasure or pain last?
3. Certainty - How likely is it that the expected pain or pleasure will occur?
4. Propinquity (nearness) - How soon will the pleasure or pain be experienced?
5. Fecundity (productivity) - How likely is the pleasure or pain to generate similar pleasure or pain?
6. Purity - How much pain is mixed with the pleasure and vice versa?
7. Extent - How many people will be affected?

This raises some interesting questions - is it OK for children to work in sweatshops so that we can buy cheap clothes? - more of us than those children.

One big benefit of Utilitarianism is that it forces people to seek alternatives.

For example, a Divine Command Ethicist would say, "Give to that charity because it's the right thing to do".  

A Utilitarian would have to consider how best to enrich the lives of those the charity supports.

Act Utilitarianism - measure the greatest good principle of a single act.
Rule Utilitarianism - measure the greatest good principle among everyone, particularly measure the act as something you would be ok with if done to you (Golden Rulish).

For You to Do . . . .
OK, choose a personal ethical dilemma - how choose three ethical schools of thought/philosophers and explain how they would approach you dilemma.











Jean-Paul S  

DAY 73 Ashley Article

Step 1:  In your notes please choose ONE option from each category for your future unborn child and explain to yourself why you chose that option.  One minute for each choice, total of five minutes!

Physical Features
Make my child beautiful
Make my child athletic
Make my child tall
        
Health
Remove all genes for inherited diseases
Add a gene strengthening my child's immune system
        
Intelligence
Make my child shrewd in business
Make my child a musical prodigy
Make my child an artistic genius
        
Emotions 
Remove the gene for feeling emotional pain
Remove the genes for lying, cheating, and stealing
Add a gene for honesty
    
Social Skills  
Make my child the life of the party
Make my child compassionate
Make my child confident


Step 2: Please read the Ashley Article handout.  For further information on Ashley and her family's journey check out their family blog: Ashley Treatment.  And check out the family's suggestion for the ethical treatment of patients in Ashley's condition, Ashley Treatment Summary.

Please answer these Ashley Article Questions fully in your notebook:

1.  Who is the moral agent who exhibited the virtues or extremes of behaviour?

2.  Describe the moral agent's behaviour.

3.  Do you think the moral agent's actions were morally right or morally wrong?  Why?

4.  Draw a continuum similar to the one show in Fig 12.2 on p. 245 of your text.  Label it with a virtue exhibited (or not exhibited) by the moral agent and add the extremes at either end.  Locate the moral agent on the continuum .  Please comment on what you've drawn.

5.  Were the actions of the moral agent good?  Were they right?  Explain the difference.

6.  Please comment, using quotes, on what two different philosophers might say about the situation in which Ashley and her family find themselves.

DAY 72 Good Life? Good Person? Do the Right Thing?

We ended yesterday with you completing the personal moral decision guide.

Today we'll discuss these big Ethics questions:
1. What is a good life?
2. What is a good person?
3. What is the right thing to do?

For Socrates and Plato, a good life is one worth living.  What makes a life worth living for them was a life of ethical action in a community of family friends and society.

Others have discussed a life of pleasure, wisdom, harmony, virtue, happiness, satisfaction, fulfilment, joy, freedom, truth, love, art, an afterlife, etc.

Others have argued that one must make their own life worthwhile - for example by refusing to participate in the injustices of the world.

The BUDDHIST Answer to these big Questions:
Gautama, founder of Buddhism, discussed the Four Noble Truths of life:
1. Life is suffering
2. Suffering comes from worldly desires
3. Desires can be eliminated
4. Desires can be eliminated by following the Eightfold Path (a good life-style).

The Eightfold Path:
1. Right Understanding
2. Right Thought
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

The over-riding goal of all of this is to be reborn in the next life a little closer to Nirvana, the ultimate goal of having no worldly needs, a state of enlightenment.

This ethic is egalitarian and inclusive and focuses on the individual who is responsible for his/her own actions.  Also, living a peaceful existence is a worthwhile virtue and lifestyle helping one reach Nirvana.

The CONFUCIANIST's and TAOIST's Answer:
The good life is a life that searches for peace and enlightenment.  This approach differs from Buddhism in that the individual sees him/herself as part of the whole of the community so that individual desires take a back seat to the well-being of family, friends, society.

Like Buddhism this is filled with virtue ethics - the five main virtues are:
1. Kindness
2. Uprightness (righteousness)
3. Decorum (propriety)
4. Wisdom (integrity)
5. Faithfulness to one's self and to others

The HEDONIST's Answer:
Originally this meant pleasures of the body, but since Epicurus (Greek Philosopher) it has meant pleasure of the mind - in particular serenity, achieved by minimizing desires and overcoming fears similar to Buddhist ideals.

Today we use the term Hedonism with a negative connotation as one who is solely interested in seeking pleasurable experiences.

The STOIC's Answer:
Very popular during Greek and Roman times, Stoicism is a lifestyle involving living happily through wisdom rather than pleasure.  The universe, they believe, is a well-ordered place and people must find their harmonious place within it by living in harmony with nature.  To do so means to have control over emotions and intentions yet remaining indifferent to things that cannot be controlled.

Hence our modern use of the term - to be stoic today generally means to show no emotion.


A Big Question in Ethics is what makes you a Good Person?  If your only motives for doing good things is to please God or your parents, or to impress your friends or teachers, does this make you a good person?  Well, the behaviour seems to be good behaviour but philosophers differ on whether your motivations for doing good constitute goodness.

VIRTUE ETHICS answers:
Virtue Ethics believe that a "Good Person" is someone who is virtuous, someone who does the right things in life because they have a good moral character rather than someone who does the right things based on the consequences of their actions.

Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, indicates that a life lived through reason is the best life which will lead to happiness.  He said that moral virtue is the result of habit and training so that people must be taught to be virtuous.  This is important because it means that people must KNOW what the right thing to do is and then they must CHOOSE to do the right thing.

Aquinas (13thC) said that people must use their wisdom / reasoning to know go and thus can achieve virtue or perfection.  He and many other religious leaders developed the idea that goodness was a result of obedience to God and His Word.  So "right conduct" became more important than "good character" as the mark of a good person.

More recently philosophers have reinvigorated the ideas of virtue as goodness of character, mixed in with good actions.  Some of these ideals include:

Fidelity - keeping promises
Reparation - making up for your wrong actions
Gratitude - repaying the favours of others
Justice - working to correct injustices
Beneficence - improving the conditions of others
Self-Improvement - improving your own condition
Non-Maleficence - not hurting others

In fact WD Ross and others would argue that these virtues MUST be followed to be a good person and that ALL of these virtues must be considered in your behaviour.

For example, your friend asks if her prom dress looks fantastic.  Rather than saying something truthful such as, "Actually, that dress makes you look like you're on your way to a Halloween Party", which might be your true opinion, you realize that that truth would hurt your friend's feelings.  So your duty to be faithful to your friend and to not hurt her (Non-Maleficence) must take precedence over your duty to tell the honest truth.  So, of course you say something like, "That's the most beautiful dress ever and I wish I had bought it instead of you!"

Virtue ethics raises many troubling questions - animal rights, human rights, equality, justice - very difficult ideas to define conclusively.

Here is some food for thought to end the class - see how these ideas fit or do not fit with our ideas of Virtue Ethics:

Setting Groundrules for Bioengineering - Ted Talk, Paul Wolpe.

DAY 71 Ethics

We ended last class (Thursday) with these thoughts below:

Why study Ethics?  I think the best reasons are:

1.       To recognize moral issues

2.       To clarify your own values.

3.       To act upon your personal values as per # 1 & 2 above rather than to act upon values you have inherited or have been conditioned to accept.

4.       To be able to communicate your decisions and actions.

Some have suggested that Moral Choices are Not Possible. 

Nihilism is a school of thought whereby moral truths do not exist because not everyone can agree on the morality of anything – there are no universal truths when it comes to morality (Gorgias also argued that nothing exists, or at least that because we use words and symbols to think about things they cannot exist with certainty, thus knowledge, and moral truths, cannot every be known universally.  Others also said similar things – Determinists like Darwin, Newton, Freud – all said similar things, that nature does not care whether something is right or wrong, it just is (e.g. our brains are made of atoms arranged in a particular way so it’s that structure that is our biology which determines our thoughts.  This, however, leaves little or no room for “nurture” or “experience” in the nature/nurture debate.

BIG QUESTION: Can People Be Good Without God?

_

What are some possible answers?

Humanists would say that Ethics is so deeply ingrained in human culture that even we all adhere to common values.

Social Peace is always a goal in societies throughout time - and the way societies reach that goal is through the pursuit of happiness, moral freedom, tolerance, moral responsibility, rational moral inquiry, etc. and both Religious and Non-Religious people can and do share these values.

For You to Do:

List 3 Reasons to "Do the Right Thing".

Possible answers include:

1. To avoid getting caught and punished.  But what if you were invisible, would you still be virtuous?

2.  To earn trust and respect from others.  But what if no-one knew of you being virtuous?

3.  Golden Rule.

These answers to these questions suggest that the outcome - security, peace, justice, etc. - are inherently good things, so this is a somewhat circular argument.

Two schools of thought on Ethics.

Ethical Absolutists - one moral code determines the rightness or wrongness of an action.  They think that everyone, regardless of consequences, circumstances, culture, etc. should observe this moral code.

Ethical Universalitsts - one moral code determines the rightness or wrongness of an action.  But, they believe that it's ok for the code to be broken in certain circumstances, so that the ethical code is universal but not absolute.

Sophie's Choice film clip - What would an Ethical Absolutist say about the choice that Sophie made?  What would an Ethical Universalist say?

Absolutists and Universalists are at one end of the Ethical spectrum.  AT the other end are Ethical Relativists - reject the idea of a universal moral code.  Rather they say that all values are relative to time, place, persons and situations.  They believe that all rules about ethics and moral are acceptable because we cannot judge between them - they are subject to time, place, persons and situations..

The underlying point to Ethical Relativism is that morality depends on social customs.  E.g. in 13 American states the death penalty is legal, presumably because those societies agree with it, but in the other 37 states it is not legal, presumably, for the same reason.  Same with Canada - society as a whole does not think that capital punishment is just (i.e. moral or ethical) therefore in Canada capital punishment is not ethical.

The idea that  some moral rules are absolute while others are relative is important in a democracy  like Canada.  In fact we think it just (moral, ethical) to recognize the cultures of peoples from around the world and are, as a result, a very "relativist" society, while some ethics are absolute.

I used the example of a Rockwood Church, Emmanuel Canadian Reformed Church, and their depiction of a cemetery of white crosses, each representing a number of abortions performed in Canada each year.  This is a link to their website - Emmanuel CRC - the discussion was about moral universals - are there any moral questions that have only one right answer.  For the members of this church, abortion is wrong in any circumstance anywhere and at any time (I think, at least that was the over-riding message of their Hwy 7 display a few weeks ago).  So for these people that is one universal moral law.  Ashley K. also raised the issue of harm to innocent children, that for people throughout the world, it is an outrage when innocent children are harmed.  The Golden Rule also came up in discussion.  The nice thing about this discussion was that most of you, all of you, determined that there are very few moral universals in existence.

Crosbie and Bowie - Peace on Earth.

Now, fill in the chart - My Personal Moral Choices.

DAY 70 Letters of Concern

Today I distributed updated marks, again, along with a comment to those whose mark is below 60%.  Copies of those letters were mailed home yesterday too.  We had a catchup period today but it's the last one - so many of you are so far behind, so next Monday is the day - if missing work comes in by then I'll mark it, if it's past then I probably won't.

DAY 69 Prom!!

Today's the Prom!  Need I say more?

DAY 68 More Intro to Ethics

Intro to Ethics Continued….

The terms “ethics” and “morals” are often used interchangeably  (from the Latin, “mores” = character, customs, habits).

Generally speaking, we use the term “morals” or “morality” to describe one’s beliefs about how people should act.

Generally speaking we use the term “ethics” as the study of the theories about these beliefs.

Is there goodness in being selfish?  Youtube link.  First minute and a half

Three main schools of thought in Ethics:

1.       

Theories of Action – how people should act and why.  

E.g. Do you download music illegally?  (This question is NOT an ethical question)

Should you download music illegally?  (This question IS an ethical question)

2.       Theories of Character  (Virtue Ethics) – examination of peoples’ character traits as either good or bad.

E.g. Hitler had vision, wisdom and courage but was a mass murderer, a fanatic and a racist.

3.       Theories of Value – examination of the assessment of worth (value).

E.g. What is goodness?  Badness?  Justice?  Injustice?  Can you describe these ideas objectively or are they subject to cultural interpretation?  What groups share similar values?

Ethical dilemmas arise in all of humanity’s pursuits.

E.g. What are good and what is evil?

What is a good life?

What is a virtue?

Why should I be moral?

What obligations to people have to one another?

What obligations do people have to shared resources?

Question for YOU:

List FIVE Ethical Choices that you have already made or that you will have to make in the future.

For each of these choices, list all of the sources that you will consult for guidance.

Humanism – way of making moral decisions (behaviour) emphasizing human or secular, i.e. non-religious, sources for guidance, focusing on the role of free will in one’s decision-making.

Kongfuzi (Confucius) and Guatama (Buddha) are some of the earliest writers in Humanism.  Based on the Golden Rule – “What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others.”

This begs the question, “Is something right because the gods favour it, or do the gods favour it because it is right?”  Plato and Aristotle developed this question in a time where society believed in multiple gods (Roman and Greek gods).

More recently Gandhi said, “For a long time I believed that God was truth.  Now I know that truth is God.”

Aristotle took this a step further and developed the “Golden Mean” (virtue, or moral excellent) which is  the middle path between two extremes.   E.g. Generosity is the happy medium between Extreme Stinginess and Extreme Wastefulness.

Morality in Animals - Big Question about Humanism

Question for YOU:  List FIVE of your personal VIRTUES in the middle of three columns and list, on either side of it, the two extremes.  

Here are some virtues that might apply to you:

Acceptance, Accountability, Bravery, Caring, Charity, Commitment, Compassion, Confidence, Consideration, Cooperation, Courtesy, Dependability, Determination, Discretion, Discipline, Empathy, Enthusiasm, Forgiveness, Generosity, Grace, Gratitude, Helpfulness, Honesty, Humility, Humour, Integrity, Joyfulness, Kindness, Love, Perseverance, Reliability, Responsibility, Sincerity, Tact, Trustworthiness, Vitality, etc.

Moral Agents – someone who is capable of thinking about a moral problem, making a decision on how to act and then taking responsibility for her/his action.  E.g. most adults are considered moral agents.  Babies and most non-human animals are not considered moral agents because they cannot understand the consequences of their actions.  However babies and most non-human animals are still part of the equation because their interests and desires are considered to be important and deserving of moral treatment and consideration – these moral “patients” (not “moral agents”) have moral standing in the moral community.  So, you cannot abuse animals and you must give the necessities of life to babies.

Why study Ethics?  I think the best reasons are:

1.       To recognize moral issues

2.       To clarify your own values.

3.       To act upon your personal values as per # 1 & 2 above rather than to act upon values you have inherited or have been conditioned to accept.

4.       To be able to communicate your decisions and actions.

Some have suggested that Moral Choices are Not Possible. 

Nihilism is a school of thought whereby moral truths do not exist because not everyone can agree on the morality of anything – there are no universal truths when it comes to morality (Gorgias also argued that nothing exists, or at least that because we use words and symbols to think about things they cannot exist with certainty, thus knowledge, and moral truths, cannot every be known universally.  Others also said similar things – Determinists like Darwin, Newton, Freud – all said similar things, that nature does not care whether something is right or wrong, it just is (e.g. our brains are made of atoms arranged in a particular way so it’s that structure that is our biology which determines our thoughts.  This, however, leaves little or no room for “nurture” or “experience” in the nature/nurture debate.

DAY 67 Ethics Intro Cont'd.

More introduction to Ethics - great discussion, many ideas tossed about.

DAY 66 Ethics Intro

We did a brief brainstorm on what Ethics means.  Then you broke into groups and each group write up five examples of their own particular part of being an Ethical Person in a Modern Country like Canada.

The groups are:
Caring
Fairness
Respect
Responsibility


Trustworthiness
Citizenship

Then we posted these at the front and spoke about them for a brief time coming to the conclusion that a "good" person in the 21st century should exhibit many or most of these qualities....

Watch this video from the 30 second mark - Immanuel Kant in Three Minutes.

Watchi this video of Kid Rock - Steal Everything!  Sorry, he swears at the very beginning but it's still worth a look.

DAY 65 Catch UP!

Most of you are at least one assignment behind so I distributed "no mark" updated marks and actual Updated Marks showing missed assignments as zeros, so you spent the day catching up.

DAY 63, 64, 65 - Seminars in Epistemology

For these three days we're doing seminars in these groups as listed below.  Remember a few things that you need to do:
1. Come to the seminar with your short list of 5 questions and bullet-point answers.
2. Bring a copy of the document in question.
3. Bring along a list of philosophers and quotes from them to use in the seminar.
4. Day after, reflection is due (see assignment handout).
5. You need 3 full Questions & Answers by the end of the seminars, let's call that this Friday.  See handout.  One question/answer for each of the three documents, i.e. 3 Qs and 3 As total.


Seminar 1 -  - Tuesday- Francis Bacon and the New Method
New Group: Ashley K, Nicole, Sara, Emily, Dana, Kaitlyn B., Kim, Taylor, Siobhan, Nirubaa


Seminar 2 - Wednesday and Karl Popper on Falsifiability
New Group: Justin, Carly, Kyle, Jake, Lorenzo, Ryan, Rachael, Chris, Nick, Jade, Cassie (11)




Seminar 3 -  Thursday- John Locke and the Essay on Human Understanding
New Group: Ashley S., Kandis, Kaitlyn T., Avery, August, Jaslynn, Rhiannon, Dani, Michelle, Liny, Chelsea

DAY 62 Seminar Prep

Here are the new groups:
Seminar 1 -  - Tuesday- Francis Bacon and the New Method
New Group: Ashley K, Nicole, Sara, Emily, Dana, Kaitlyn B., Kim, Taylor, Siobhan, Nirubaa


Seminar 2 - Wednesday and Karl Popper on Falsifiability
New Group: Justin, Carly, Kyle, Jake, Lorenzo, Ryan, Rachael, Chris, Nick, Jade, Cassie (11)




Seminar 3 -  Thursday- John Locke and the Essay on Human Understanding
New Group: Ashley S., Kandis, Kaitlyn T., Avery, August, Jaslynn, Rhiannon, Dani, Michelle, Liny, Chelsea

Notes on Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding - we did background info on Thursday, today here are some notes on the primary source document . . . 

First paragraph - describes the idea of the "Tabula Rasa" - or blank slate.  Think of the mind as a blank sheet of paper . . .  EXPERIENCE.  School of thought . . .   Empiricism.

EMPIRICISM. Locke

IDEALISM. 

SKEPTICISM - Descartes

RATIONALISM - Aristotle

PRAGMATISM - 

"...sensible objects . . " agree & disagree.

Agree - eg of airplanes.

Disagree - e.g. of floating hot-dog before your eyes, bent pencil in a glass of water.

2nd parag. sensation is one source of ideas.  Locke gives a list of what our senses tell us - hot cold, colour, texture, taste, etc.   these help us understand things.

3rd paragraph. Operation of our minds . . another source. perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, willing, etc..  Because we are conscious of all these things, we understand different ideas. This is "reflection."   e.g. learning from mistakes, building on experiences, building upon previous understanding.

4th para.  ALL ideas are from either experience or reflection.

Experiences furnish the mind with perceptions, then reflecting upon these produces ideas.

Uses Children as an example:  children go from an empty mind to a full one by degrees as above.

5th paragraph -  different interactions, produce different results (thoughts) depending upon experience - Nature vs. Nurture argument.

Popper - 

Science - falsifiable.

Pseudo-science.  e.g. Astrology/Horroscopes - the way we can collect data is exactly the same as one would collect it in "true" science.  He also explains that we can see much truth in Marxism if we look around.  In each case you can collect lots of data and draw conclusions.

Problem is with how the data is collected.  The empirical method is absent, as if falsifiability.

Lists 7 criteria:  roughly defining the Modern Scientific Method.

He refutes the idea that observations alone, despite how much they might support an idea/theory/hypothesis, are enough to "prove" an idea to the point where the idea can be considered knowledge or fact.  Rather, he says, each bit of information/data/empirical evidence must have been collected in an attempt to refute, rather than support, the original premise to begin with.  See earlier notes on Astrology, Marxism, and consider the ideas we raised in class.