Program Directors: Tanya Loughead, PhD and Philip Reed, PhD
Why these new programs?
The contemporary world is fraught with serious challenges to well-being, a world in which poor and marginalized peoples and animals are especially at risk because of their vulnerability to the effects of globalization and climate change, human trafficking, disease or war. Modern American culture tends to promote confrontation without reflection. Increasing class division and income inequalities, the privatization of happiness, hedonism, an over-emphasis on individuality and/or ethnocentrism might all add to our inability or unwillingness to engage in earnest deliberation on suffering. People who disagree with one another tend to avoid reflective dialogue. We are surrounded by moral disagreements that appear to be incommensurable and irresolvable. Moreover, moral discourse seems to be rooted in pernicious relativism that prevents genuine, sustained, rational and reflective inquiry.
The Ethics minor aims to remedy contemporary trends that eclipse genuine dialogue by creating programs and opportunities for our students to participate in careful analysis and to cultivate moral imagination and thereby to enrich their capacities for moral discernment. Engagement in moral conflict fosters in students an appreciation for ideas such as the common good, collective responsibility and solidarity. Students will learn to advance beyond merely espousing opinions to become enabled to examine their pre-reflective commitments in the context of commitments to truth and the promotion of justice.
What is the minor in Ethics?
- The Ethics Minor provides students with opportunities to engage in careful analysis of and sustained reflection on contemporary moral concerns and to encourage applications of moral principles toward creating a more just world.
- This minor encourages students to systematically cultivate their characters, not simply in an inwardly-focused way but rather outwardly in working to realize a more just world.
- Moreover, this minor provides students already having strong interests in these areas additional avenues for formal, interdisciplinary study by making a curricular connection to extracurricular activities on campus such as local volunteering, service trips both national and international, and campus ministry programs.
- The minor is flexible in its requirements, allowing room for students to focus on their particular interests, such as ethical concerns relating to gender, the environment or health care. A student might, for example, focus her course work around the theme of 'medical ethics' or around 'religion's relationship to ethics.'
- The Ethics Minor also serves to provide credentials for students seeking employment or applying to graduate school, as it is a liberal arts compliment to many majors in the humanities, business and education.
Requirements
Students are required to complete a total of 16 credit hours, including 20 hours of service. The four requirements of the minor are:
- Foundation course:
PHI 241 Ethics (offered every year by the Department of Philosophy)
Three (3) credits - Four three-credit hour ethics courses from a list of pre-approved elective courses, chosen for this program (see below).
- A one-credit hour independent research project including a paper of around 15 pages written in collaboration with a professor who teaches within the Ethics Minor Program.
- Twenty (20) hours of direct service (see program directors for details).
Elective Courses
Students will take four courses from the following list.
| Course | Title | Professor | ||
| CLS 300 | Roman Law and Society | Williams | ||
| HON 355 | Religion's Public Role | Lynch & Kelly | ||
| PHI 242 | Ethical Issues in Business | Pryba | ||
| PHI 243 | Bio-medical Ethics | Reed or Kelly | ||
| PHI 244 | Environmental Ethics | Reed or Halady | ||
| PHI 245 | Animal Ethics | Zeis | ||
| PHI 246 | Ethics of Technology | Reed | ||
| PHI 247 | Food and Agricultural Ethics | Pryba | ||
| PHI 252 | Happiness, Virtue, and the Good Life | Reed or Forest | ||
| PHI 268 | Catholic and Jewish Bioethics | Kelly | ||
| RST 340 | Moral Issues Today | Rourke | ||
| RST 342 | Theological Ethics & Environmental Justice | Rourke | ||
| RST 345 | Bio-Moral Problems | Rourke | ||
| ZPR 351 | Contemporary Catholic Social Ethics | Lynch & Kelly |
Courses only count toward the minor when taught by the professors noted above. Courses taken retroactively may count. Professors who wish their courses to be considered for the program should send full syllabi to program directors. For questions, please Email program directors Tanya Loughead, PhD or Philip Reed, PhD.
Student Learning Goals
Goal 1: Students will demonstrate analysis of and reflection upon concerns of ethics.
Students will:
- Show competence and expertise in some concerns of ethics.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the relevant theories of ethics and the ability to critically analyze and reflect on these theories.
- Understand and reflect on the experience of some concerns of ethics.
Goal 2: Students will be able to thoughtfully apply moral principles to cultivate their characters and to work towards realizing a more just world.
Students will:
- Recognize and analyze some contemporary concerns where ethics are at stake (such as environmental racism, or the abortion debate) and propose thoughtful solutions or approaches to these issues.
- Engage on a personal level some contemporary concerns where ethics is at stake.