Content Outline and Competencies:

I. The Nature of Philosophy

A. Defining philosophy and its areas of inquiry

1. Explain the Socratic understanding of wisdom.

2. Define metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and logic.

B. The Critical Tradition

1. Explain the Socratic model of inquiry.

2. Explain the search for meaning.

II. Reality

A. The natural world

1. Explain the mind/body problem.

2. Identify and explain the philosophical significance of classical and modern theories of space and time.

3. Identify and explain the philosophical problems associated with matter and causality.

B. Transcendent reality

1. Explain the classical philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God.

2. Identify and explain the philosophical issues surrounding theism and atheism.

C. Consciousness

1. Explain the problem of free will.

2. Explain the problem of personal identity.

3. Identify and explain the philosophical problems associated with death.

III. Knowledge

A. Skepticism

1. Explain sophism.

2. Explain Cartesian skepticism.

B. The Rational Tradition

1. Explain classical rationalism.

2. Explain Cartesian rationalism.

C. The Empirical Tradition

1. Explain classical empiricism.

2. Explain the modern empiricism of Locke and Hume.

IV. Values

A. Problems of ethics

1. Explain egoism.

2. Explain moral relativism.

B. Theories of duty and value

1. Explain deontology.

2. Explain utilitarianism.

3. Explain virtue ethics.

4. Explain existentialism’s critique of modern moral theory.

NOTE: Individual instructors may vary the order of the outline as it appears here and may emphasize some subtopics of the outline to the exclusion of others. What is assured is that this list of major topics represents the topics that will be covered in the course.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Arguments

A. Distinguish arguments from non-arguments.

1. Identify the differences between an argument and an explanation

2. Explain the differences between and argument and a report, narration or illustration

B. Identify the elements of arguments 

1. Identify premises and conclusions in arguments

2. Put arguments into standard form 

II. Inductive Reasoning

A. Describe the basic concepts of inductive arguments.

1. Distinguish forcefulness (strength) and cogency

2. Explain the relationship between forcefulness (strength) and cogency

B. Identify and evaluate the force (strength) and cogency of Different Types of Inductive Arguments 

1. Evaluate the cogency of different types of inductive arguments such as:

a. Analogical arguments

b. Generalizations

c. Causal inferences

d. Probabilistic argument

2. Evaluate the cogency and merits of arguments in specialized areas such as:

a. Legal reasoning

b. Moral arguments

c. Scientific reasoning

d. Aesthetic reasoning

III. Deductive Logic

A. Distinguish formal and informal arguments.

B. Describe the salient features of deductive arguments.

1. Distinguish validity and soundness

2. Recognize and deploy different deductive argument forms such as:

a. Modus ponens

b. Modus tollens

c. Disjunctive syllogism

d. Chain

C. Propositional logic

1. Translate English into propositional form

2.Identify the symbolic connectors

3. Identify the structure of propositional arguments such as:

a. Hypothetical syllogisms

b. Dilemmas

4. Use truth tables to evaluate propositional arguments for validity

5. Demonstrate familiarity with and the ability to use logical operators

IV. Informal Reasoning

A. Understand the nature of both an informal fallacy and the types of argumentation that give rise to such fallacies.

B. Recognize common informal fallacies.

1. Distinguish between fallacies of relevance and fallacies of credibility

2. Identify common fallacies of relevance such as:

a. Appeal to force

b. Appeal to pity

c. Arguments from authority

d. The genetic fallacy

e. Ad hominem arguments

3. Identify common fallacies of credibility such as:

a. Amphiboly

b. Equivocation

c. False dilemma

d. Biased statistics

e. Circular reasoning

f. False analogy

g. Hasty generalization

h. Incomplete evidence

i. Slippery slope

j. Post hoc

k. Ignoring common cause and confusing cause and effect

l. Composition

C. Recognize components of language and language use relevant to reasoning.

1. Explain meaning as understood in logic

2. Distinguish the different types of definitions and describe the differences between each

3. Explain emotive force

4. Distinguish between vague language and ambiguous language

5. Distinguish denotation and connotation

6. Distinguish primary and secondary connotation

7. Distinguish prescriptive and descriptive language

D. Evaluate arguments from arenas such as 

1. the media

2. politics

3. the law

4. ethics

5. science

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Explain the modern scientific understanding of the natural world

A. Review the emergence and tenets of modern scientific attitudes toward nature.

1. Explain the idea that the natural world can be understood mechanistically

a. Describe the historical setting for the emergence of mechanical philosophy in the 17th century

1) Explain the claim that the natural world is composed of basic matter and operates according basic laws of nature

2) Analyze Rene Descartes’ claim that animals are automata and only humans have minds

3) Formulate the implications of Descartes’ claim that animals do not have consciousness

2. Describe Bacon’s claims about the value of understanding nature

a. Review Francis Bacon’s claim that we must force Nature to reveal her secrets

b. Explain Bacon’s claim that knowledge of the natural world would work to the betterment of humanity

c. Formulate the modern understanding of the relationship between technology and knowledge

B. Review the assumptions of the modern scientific method.

1. Explain the idea of objectivity

a. Distinguish quantitative and qualitative research

b. Identify the fact/value distinction

2. Describe the role of experimental studies in modern science

II. Explain the basic features of environmental thought found in major world religions.

A. Review the basic features of the account of Creation in Genesis.

1. Explain monotheism and the idea that God is the transcendent source of all things

a. Describe essential features of the Judeo-Christian God

b. Describe the centrality of God as a moral authority in Judeo-Christian thought

2. Identify the image of human privilege in Genesis

a. Explain the idea that humans are unique in being made in God’s image

b. Describe the place of humans in the natural world according to Genesis

c. Formulate the implications of the idea that the natural world was created for human use

d. Locate the idea of stewardship as it appears in Judeo-Christian thought about the environment

B. Review the distinctive features of Islamic environmental thought.

1. Locate the foundation of Islamic thought in the Qur’an, Hadith and Sunnah

2. Explain the idea of Shariah law and its place in Islamic thought

3. Describe the essential conceptual elements of Islamic environmental thought

a. Explain the idea of Khalaifa, or human trusteeship of the natural environment

b. Explain the idea of tawhid, or the unity of created world as an expression of Allah’s perfect will

c. Explain the idea of fitra, or the perfection of creation

C. Describe the basic features of the natural world as understood in Buddhism.

1. Identify the core claims of Buddhism as expressed in the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path

a. Explain the idea of duhkha, or suffering, and its origin in cravings and ignorance

b. Describe the doctrines of dependent origination, karma and impermanence

2. Articulate the distinctive features of Buddhist environmental thought

a. Formulate the implications the idea of dependent origination for humans and our place in the natural world

b. Formulate the normative implications of the idea of karma as applied to our treatment of other animals.

c. Explain the relevance of the idea of impermanence to our understanding of the natural world

D. Review the basic features of the natural world as understood in Daoism.

1. Explain the idea of the Dao

a. Describe the image of the Dao as presented in the Dao De Jing and Zhuangzi

b. Formulate the normative implications of the image living in accordance with the Dao

2. Explain the origin of the ‘myriad things’ offered by Daoism

a. Describe the process of immanent creation in Daoism

b. Explain the place of humans in the world as understood in Daosim

1) Explain the image of humans as ‘straw dogs'

2) Describe Daoist emphasis on spontaneity, harmony and wu wei, or non-coercive action

c. Describe the prevalence of naturalistic images in Daoist texts

1) Explain the importance of the image of flowing water in Daoist thought

2) Explicate Zhuangzi’s use of stories of animals and plants in his moral texts

3) Describe the normative force given to natural processes Daoism

E. Discuss the basic tenets of Native American beliefs as they pertain to the natural world.

1. Explain the idea of Traditional Ecological Knowledge

2. Describe the Native American normative emphasis on holism and balance

III. Describe the Basic Ideas and Claims of Anthropocentrism

A. Identify the idea and influence of anthropocentrism.

1. Explain the idea that humans are morally more important than plants and other animals

2. Trace the idea of human uniqueness to its origins in earlier Christian and modern philosophical thought

3. Explain the idea that only humans are moral agents

B. Explain the difference between inherent and instrumental worth as applied to the natural world..

1. Explain Kant’s distinction between persons as ends in themselves and things as mere means

2. Explain the idea that the natural world is valuable only as it useful to humans

3. Formulate the implications of the idea the natural world has only instrumental worth

a. Explain the idea of maximal pollution

b. Discuss the idea that we should not preserve nature at the cost of human welfare

c. Discuss the anthropocentric defense of the use animals for research and food

C. Describe the philosophical challenges to anthropocentrism.

1. Explain the arguments against human uniqueness

a. Describe the biological continuities between humans and other species as revealed in the theory of evolution

b. Explain the idea of speciesism and the arguments against it

1) Assess the analogy between speciesism and sexism and racism

2) Formulate the implications of rejecting speciesism in regard to the use animals in experimentation and food

c. Explain non-utilitarian accounts of animal rights

2. Identify the non-anthropocentric tendencies of Buddhism, Daoism and Native American religions

IV. Explain the Basic Ideas and Claims of Egocentrism

A. Identify the proposed components of a land ethic.

1. Describe the concept of a biotic community

2. Explain the values of integrity, stability and beauty as values of biotic community

3. Distinguish conservation as the preservation of resource and as promotion of the health of ecosystems.

B. Identify the claims of deep ecology.

1. Explain the idea that ecological diversity is an inherent good

2. Describe the limits on human rights entailed by deep ecology

3. Trace the connections between deep ecology and concerns about human population growth

C. Identify the claims of ecofeminism.

1. Explain the feminist analysis of the structural and institutional oppression of women by men

a. Describe the idea of “patriarchy”

b. Explain the logic of domination that is said to underlie patriarchal institutions

2. Explain the claim there is a deep connection between patriarchy and the exploitation of the environment

a. Trace the historical connections made between reason and thought and masculinity

b. Trace the historical connections made between feelings and the body and femininity

c. Explain how the historical privileging of reason and culture has denigrated both women and nature

3. Describe the basic claims of the feminist spirituality movement

a. Describe the image of the earth as a mother and its role in ecofeminism

b. Explain the claim that women are closer to nature than men

c. Explain the claim that focusing on the experiences of women can lead to a deepened appreciation of nature

4. Describe the most prevalent challenges to ecofeminism

a. Discuss the charge that ecofeminism draws on and reinforces traditional gender stereotypes

b. Evaluate the charge that ecofeminist uncritically accept women’s roles and experiences as structured by patriarchy

V. Identify the Features of the Most Pressing Problems and Debates in Environmental Ethics

A. Describe the moral challenges posed by pollution.

1. Explain the implications of adopting an ecocentric and anthropocentric approaches to thinking about pollution

a. Explain the idea of optimal pollution

b. Describe the anthropocentric arguments in favor of limiting pollution

c. Formulate the ecocentric rejection of optimal pollution

B. Describe the moral challenges posed by climate change.

1. Explain the debate about the respective duties of developed countries and developing countries in combatting climate change

2. Trace the connections between the problems of anthropogenic climate change and human population growth

C. Explain the moral challenges posed by food production and consumption.

1. Describe the environmental impact of the cattle industry

2. Explain the moral arguments in favor of vegetarianism

a. Discuss the moral arguments against vegetarianism

b. Explain the moral controversies attached to genetically modified organisms

VI. Describe the Principle of Sustainability

A. Explain the argument that current patterns of economic development and production are unsustainable.

1. Describe the connections made between global economic trends and unsustainable consumption.

2. Discuss the argument that adopting sustainable practices will require radical changes in economic organization

B. Describe the problems and moral issues attached to unsustainable practices.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Morality as a Philosophical Enterprise

A. Review the three main branches of ethics and their relationship.

1. Explain the difference between metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.

2. Describe the main questions and types of theories encountered in the study of ethics. 

3. Explain the debate over the existence and nature of moral truth.

4. Analyze metaethical assumptions and their influence on normative accounts of morality.

5. Describe the application of normative theories and concepts to address practical issues.

B. Describe how the history of moral philosophy sets the stage for food ethics.

1. Review the history of moral philosophy and the emergence of environmental ethics.

2. Discuss the field of environmental ethics. 

3. Explain the concepts of anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism. 

4. Analyze how issues in environment ethics give rise to issues regarding ethics and food.

II. The Philosophy of Food

A. Review the basic features of the metaphysics of food.

1. Explain our assumptions about the nature of food. 

2. Discuss the implications of assumptions about the nature of food on other metaphysical questions.

3. Consider notions of food as nature, culture, social good, spirituality, desideratum, and aesthetic object.

B. Describe the epistemology of food.

1. Explain how food gives rise to a different set of epistemological questions as an object of consumption.

2. Discuss the role of risk, trust, and practical reason in food epistemology.

C. Explain the aesthetics of food and the unique challenges it brings to aesthetic theory and philosophy of art.

1. Describe how "taste as judgment" differs in aesthetics of food versus other discussions of aesthetics.

2. Articulate the debate about the status of food as art.

D. Review the connection between food and identity. 

1. Explain how food expresses and prescribed identity especially gender, race, and class.

2. Explain the connection between food, identity and justice.

E. Describe the economic and political nature of food choices. 

1. Discuss the food security as a political and economic issue.

2. Explain the impact on globalization on food access, production, and consumption in local communities.

3. Review the connection between labeling and marketing and informed consumer choice.

III. Population, Hunger, and Moral Responsibility

A. Describe how overpopulation and overconsumption relate to global hunger.

1. Discuss the causes of starvation and malnutrition. 

2. Explain overconsumption and its impact on environmental and human health. 

B. Describe the Green Revolution.

1. Explain how the Green Revolution addressed the problem of world hunger.

2. Discuss why the Green Revolution is unable to resolve world hunger on its own.

C. Discuss the relationship between hunger and the amount of food produced.

1. Determine whether the main cause of hunger is the amount of food produced.

2. Articulate the reasons we cannot simply produce more food to solve the problem of world hunger.

3. Discuss other causes that impact global hunger and how they might be addressed.

D. Review the questions of moral obligation in the context of global hunger.

1. Explain why the problem of hunger is not merely an economic one.

a. Explain why per capita food supply analysis is inadequate. 

b. Explain Sen’s alternative analysis in terms of "entitlements."

2. Introduce Singer’s argument regarding the moral obligation to others in need.

a. Review Singer’s two main assumptions.  

b. Discuss the strong and weak versions of Singer’s second principle.

c. Analyze the implications and objections that follow from Singer’s argument.

IV. The most pressing issues and debates surrounding farming and biotechnology.

A. Define terminology related to farming practices.

1. Explain conventional farming and its techniques. 

2. Explain organic farming and its techniques.

3. Explain local agriculture and its relation to conventional and organic farming.

4. Discuss biotechnology, genetic engineering, and genetic modification.

B. Enumerate the pros and cons of conventional farming methods.

1. Review the economic and production benefits of industrial agriculture.

2. Review the environmental benefits of industrial agriculture.

3. Discuss the shortcomings and criticisms lodged against industrial agriculture. 

C. Compare conventional, organic, and local farming.

1. Review the similarities and differences in methods and techniques.

2. Discuss the tradeoffs involved in conventional, organic, and local farming.

3. Assess the different methods of food production and the ends we should strive for. 

D. Explain the debate surrounding the development and use of GMOs.

1. Review the relationship between GMOs and different farming methods.

2. Explain the benefits of GMOs related to crop yield and environmental impact.

3. Explain the concerns about GMOs. 

a. Discuss the impact of GMOs on biodiversity and indigenous knowledge.

b. Explain the concerns related to human health and regulation associated with GMOs.

c. Identify other ethical issues related to the development and use of GMOs.

V. The ethical issues and implications regarding animal agriculture.

A. Define terminology related to animal agriculture.

1. Explain industrial animal agriculture and what it involves.

2. Explain free range farming and what it involves.

3. Explain different concepts of well-being and their relation to animal agriculture. 

B. Enumerate the concerns related to industrial animal agriculture.

1. Review the effects of industrial animal agriculture on people.

2. Review the effects of industrial animal agriculture on the environment.

3. Review the effects of industrial animal agriculture on animals.

C. Discuss different views regarding the ethical status of animals.

1. Explain Peter Singer’s argument for equal consideration of interests.

2. Explain Tom Regan’s rights-based approach to animal ethics.

3. Explain Kant’s view of animal ethics and how it has been reinterpreted by contemporary scholars. 

D. Explain how different views regarding the ethical treatment of animals lead to different conclusions about the ethics of animal agriculture. 

E. Discuss the moral arguments for and against vegetarianism.

VI. Debates About Food Justice

A. Characterize the food justice movement.

1. Define food justice.

2. Describe what a socially just food system would look like.

3. Distinguish the food justice movement from the alternative food movement. 

B. Identify key issues related to identity and food justice.

1. Discuss racism, classism, sexism, and exclusionary practices in the food system and alternative food movement.

2. Explain the lack of equal participation in decision making about food.

3. Discuss the lack of access to first foods. 

C. Identify concerns posed by low wages and poor working conditions in the food industry.

D. Explain the concept of food sovereignty and its significance to food justice.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Ethical Theory

A. Explain the key ideas of deontological moral theories.

1. Explain Kant’s understanding of duty.

2. Distinguish acting out of duty and acting out of inclination.

3. Explain the different formulations of the categorical imperative.

4. Analyze possible resolutions of business dilemmas using the categorical imperative.

B. Explain the key ideas of consequentialist moral theories.

1. Explain the Greatest Happiness Principle.

2. Explain J.S. Mill’s distinction between higher and lower pleasures.

3. Define act utilitarianism.

4. Define rule utilitarianism.

5. Analyze the differences between deontological and consequentialist thinking.

6. Analyze possible resolutions of business dilemmas using Act and Rule Utilitarianism.

C. Explain the key ideas of virtue ethics.

1. Explain the concept of virtue as understood in the Aristotelian tradition.

2. Define happiness as understood by Aristotle.

3. Explain Aristotle’s theory of human nature and its role in his theory of virtue.

4. Apply the Doctrine of the Mean.

5. Explain how Aristotle accounts for the development of character.

6. Analyze possible resolutions of moral dilemmas using virtue ethics.

D. Explain the key ideas of Confucianism.

1. Describe the ideal of the junzi, or morally exemplary person.

2. Define the Confucian virtues of ren (benevolence/consummate humanity), xiao (filial piety), zhi (wisdom) and yi (righteousness/propriety).

3. Explain li (ritual propriety) and its place in Confucian moral education.

4. Describe the lasting influence of Confucian moral thinking on East Asian cultures.

E. Explain the key ideas of moral relativism.

1. Identify examples of morally salient cultural diversity.

2. Explain the idea of universal objective moral standards.

3. Analyze the implications of rejecting the existence of objective, universal moral standards.

4. Analyze examples of morally salient cross-cultural disagreements using moral relativism.

II. Key Concepts in Business Ethics

A. Define the different types of businesses.

1. Explain sole proprietorship.

2. Distinguish general, limited, limited liability partnerships.

3. Distinguish government-owned, not-for-profit, privately owned, privately held for-profit, privately owned publicly held for-profit, and cooperative corporations.

B. Sources of moral tension in business.

1. Discuss the perceived conflict between the profit motive and moral obligation.

2. Identify the potential obligations of different kinds of businesses to:

a. Stakeholders

b. Employees

c. The community

d. The environment

e. Clients and customers

C. Analyze the obligations of businesses using the resources of the relevant moral theories.

D. Identify possible tensions between personal duties and duties attached to roles as defined with business.

III. Issues in Business Ethics

A. Identify ethical challenges arising from globalization.

1. Analyze the moral implications of cultural diversity in a business context.

2. Formulate standard moral objections to and defenses of outsourcing.

3. Use case studies to analyze ethical issues such as

a. Bribery

b. “Sweatshops”

c. Child Labor

B. Identify ethical challenges tied to the environment.

1. Explain the problem of pollution as a negative externality.

2. Describe the economic problem of public goods and its relevance to market based responses environmental issues.

3. Evaluate competing business ethical responses problems such as

a. Climate change

b. Resource depletion

c. Destruction of local ecologies

C. Identify ethical challenges arising in relations between businesses and consumers.

1. Analyze competing accounts of a company’s duty to be honest in areas such as

a. Marketing and advertisement

b. Pricing

c. Credit and interest rates

2. Analyze competing accounts of a company’s duty to guarantee product safety.

3. Analyze moral controversies in such areas as

a. Marketing medical necessities

b. Predatory lending

c. Marketing sex, alcohol, gambling, etc.

d. Influence of products on cultural attitudes regarding gender, race, class, etc.

e. Consumer privacy

D. Identify ethical challenges arising in relations between employers and employees.

1. Explain the concepts of exploitation and alienation.

2. Evaluate competing accounts of a business’s duties regarding:

a. Workplace safety

b. Fair labor practices

c. Management and supervising

d. Hiring and firing

3. Evaluate competing accounts of employee responsibilities regarding

a. Loyalty and whistleblowing

b. Corruption

c. Workplace civility

d. Fulfilling job duties

e. Bribes and kickbacks

4. Evaluate competing analysis of discrimination in hiring and business practices.

a. Identify historic patterns of discriminatory business practices.

b. Analyze competing ethical responses to workplace harassment.

c. Evaluate competing responses to the challenges of diversity in the workplace.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Upanishadic and “Unorthodox” Schools of Indian Philosophy

A. Describe the social and material conditions of ancient India that provided the context for the prevailing philosophical ideas of the period.

B. Summarize the Vedic background to Indian philosophy and trace the emergence of Indian philosophy in the Upanishads.

C. Discuss the basic concepts of Upanishadic philosophy.

1. Discern the previous meanings of the word karma and the emergence of a new meaning in the Upanishads.

2. Discuss the meanings of the concept of Brahman.

3. Discuss the identity of Atman and Brahman as asserted in the Chandogya Upanishad.

4. Explain the concept of liberation through the attainment of true knowledge

D. Describe and evaluate the basic ontological and epistemological contentions of Lokayata/Charvaka materialism.

E. Describe and evaluate the basic ontological and epistemological contentions of Jaina philosophy.

1. Explain the Jain meaning of jiva/atman, karma, samsara, dharma, pudgala, and skandha.

2. Analyze and evaluate the Jain concept of truth-values.

3. Describe the Jain method of ridding oneself of Karma and attaining kaivalya or absolute independence.

II. Buddhist Philosophy and Practice

A. Discuss the life and career of the Buddha, and describe and evaluate the basic ontological and epistemological contentions of early Buddhist philosophy.

1. Briefly recount the life and career of the Buddha.

2. List and evaluate the Four Noble Truths and the steps of the Eightfold Path as the means of attaining enlightenment.

3. Compare and contrast the ontological status of samsara and nirvana.

4. Analyze and evaluate the Buddhist contention that all things are impermanent.

5. Analyze and evaluate the Buddhist denial of self and its account of what constitutes rebirth.

6. Analyze and evaluate the concept of Dependent Origination as the cause of samsara.

7. Analyze and evaluate the Buddhist concepts of the five skandhas/khandas; how these account for perception; how they constitute dukkha, or suffering; and how they are affected by Dependent Origination.

B. Mahayana Buddhist Schools of Philosophy.

1. Explain and evaluate the Mahayana concepts of Sunyata, or Emptiness; Non-Dualism; Tathagata, or universal Buddha Nature; the Buddha’s Three Bodies; and the Bodhisattva.

2. Describe and evaluate the basic ontological and epistemological contentions of the madhyamaka School of Nagarjuna.

3. Describe and evaluate the basic ontological and epistemological contentions of the Yogacara School. 4. Explain the key differences between Mahayana and “Hinayana” schools of Buddhism.

III. Confucian Thought in Chinese Philosophy

A. Describe the social and material conditions of ancient China that provided the context for the prevailing philosophical ideas of the period.

B. Summarize the historical and cultural background of Confucianism in the Zhou dynasty and Warring States Period.

C. Discuss the importance of Confucius’ teaching in the Lunyu, or Analects.

1. Describe what we know of Confucius’ life.

2. Identify Confucius’ understanding of the dao or way as a principle leading to social and natural harmony.

3. Discuss the emergence of the junzi, or exemplary person, as a moral ideal in Confucianism.

4. Discern the significance of mastering li, or ritual propriety, in Confucian moral education.

5. Discuss the centrality of xiao, or filial piety, and the emphasis on social roles and tradition in Confucian thought.

a. Identify the use of familial relations as a model for social and political relations

b. Explain the importance of the Wu Lun, or Five Relations of parent/child; husband/wife; older sibling/younger sibling; ruler/subject; and friend/friend in establishing and maintaining social hierarchies.

6. Discuss the centrality of jiao, or education, in Confucian ethics.

7. Discuss Confucius’ understanding of ren, or humanity or benevolence, or humaneness, yi, or righteousness, and zhi, or wisdom, and their roles in his moral thinking.

8. Discuss the role of the sheng, or sage, as the highest manifestation of humanity in Confucian thought.

D. Discuss the development of Confucian thought in the Daxue, or The Great Learning.

1. Explain what is meant by ‘inborn luminous virtue’ and how it is preserved according to the Daxue.

2. Discuss the interplay of care for learning, thought, the mind, self-cultivation, family harmony, and good government in the Daxue.

E. Discuss the development of Confucian thought in the Zhongyong or The Doctrine of the Mean.

1. Explain cheng, or integrity, as it is understood in the Zhongyong.

2. Discuss meanings of xing, or nature, and renxing, or human nature, in the Zhongyong.

3. Identify the contention of the Zhongyong that meaning in life is found in the moral practice of everyday affairs.

F. Identify and explain the contributions of Mengzi (Mencius) in the development of Confucianism.

1. Discuss Mengzi’s account of renxing, or human nature.

a. Explain his defense of the essential goodness of humans.

b. Discern his account of the origins of evil.

c. Discuss Menzi’s criticisms of Mozi’s ideal of ‘universal love’.

2. Discuss Mengzi’s moral psychology.

a. Identify the four duan, or ‘sprouts’ or ‘stirrings’, in the xin (heart-mind) that are the basis of moral virtue as understood by Mengzi.

b. Explain Mengzi’s correlation of the four duan with the virtues of ren (benevolence or humanity); yi (righteousness); li (ritual propriety); and zhi (wisdom).

3. Explain Mengzi’s account of moral development as rooted in xiao (filial piety) and li (ritual propriety).

4. Explain Mengzi’s theory of ‘good government’ as based on moral example and benevolence rather than power or coercion.

G. Explain Xunzi’s challenge to Menzi’s optimistic theory of human nature

1. Discuss Xunzi’s claim that humans are inherently selfish and desire to enjoy pleasure and avoid pain.

2. Explain Xunzi’s contention that morality was invented by the ancient sages and is achieved through education.

a. Discuss Xunzi’s distinction between renxing, or nature, and wei, or human artifice.

b. Explain his claim that morality stems from wei, or “conscious striving”, and not renxing, or human nature.

3. Explain Xunzi’s account of the role of li (ritual propriety) in the development of ren (benevolence).

4. Discuss Zunzi’s view of Tian.

5. Show why the Rectification of Names is important in Zunxi’s thought.

H. Explain the challenges to Confucianism presented by Mozi and the Legalists.

1. Discuss Mozi’s utilitarian philosophy and his idea of universal love.

2. Discuss the Legalists insistence on strict rules and harsh punishment in maintaining social harmony.

IV. Daoism and its Influence on Chinese Thought

A. Describe the emergence of Daoist thought as a response to the violence and uncertainty of the Warring States Period.

B. Discuss traditional accounts of the life of Laozi and the authorship of the Daodejing.

C. Explain the processional metaphysics and immanent cosmology of the Daodejing and contrast it with the essentialism and transcendent cosmology more typical of Western philosophy.

1. Explain the Daodejing’s naturalistic understanding of dao

2. Discuss the role of yin and yang processes in the emergence of the individual objects.

3. Explain the role of a thing’s de, or power, in the Daodejing’s metaphysics.

D. Explain the Daodejing’s account of language.

1. Explain the claim that the dao that can be spoken of is not the eternal dao.

2. Analyze the claim that the named is the mother of the myriad things.

3. Describe the interdependence of opposites such as beautiful and ugly, good and bad in Daoist thought.

4. Evaluate the Daodejing social constructivist account of morality and its claim that conventional morality is corrupting.

5. Analyze the Daoist critique of Confucian ethics.

E. Discuss the importance of the ideas of wuwei, or non-coercive action, wuzhi, or non-conceptualized knowing, and wuyu, or objectless desiring, in Daoism.

1. Discuss the importance of spontaneity and the processes of the natural world in Daoist aesthetics.

2. Discern the daoist endorsement of minimalist government.

3. Analyze the suggestion that renouncing political ambition and material wealth leads to greater happiness and social harmony.

F. Discuss the Zhuangzi’s contributions to Daoism.

1. Describe the traditional claims about the life of Zhuangzi and the origins of the work that bears his name.

2. Describe and evaluate the skeptical attitude in the Zhuangzi regarding human knowledge and understanding.

a. Explain the Zhuangzi’s skeptical argument based on the conflicting claims of Confucianism and Mohism.

b. Explain the Zhuangzi’s skeptical argument based on the interdependence of all conceptual distinctions.

c. Explain the Zhuangzi’s epistemological skepticism based on our limited perspectives when grasping reality as illustrated by the parable of Zhou dreaming he is a butterfly.

3. Discuss the Zhuangzi’s recommendations for alleviating the fear of death by recognizing the constant transformation of things.

V. Neo-Confucianism

A. Describe the innovations of Chinese Buddhism and its challenge to Confucianism.

1. Explain how the rich metaphysics of Buddhism revealed a lacuna in Confucian thought.

a. Discuss the idea of Buddha Nature as understood in Huanyan Buddhism.

b. Explain the idea that the illusory objects of everyday experience share the same fundamental Buddha nature.

c. Discuss the claim that Enlightenment is the process by which we rediscover Buddha nature.

d. Describe the focus on meditative techniques as route to sudden Enlightenment in Chan Buddhism.

B. Describe the neo-Confucian response to the Buddhist challenge to Confucianism.

C. Describe the neo-Confucian appropriation of Chinese Buddhist concepts and their translation into a Confucian idiom.

1. Explain Zhou Dunyi’s account of the origins of yin and yang in the Taiji, or Great Ultimate and his account of the origins of the five agencies or phases in the interaction of yin and yang.

2. Explain the significance of Zhang Zai’s The Western Inscription and the idea of human goodness.

3. Explain Zhang Zai’s understanding of qi as a psychophysical substance his account of the transformation of yin and yang according to li, or principle.

4. Describe Zhang Zai’s account sagehood as realizing the unity of all things in li, or principle and the role of ren understood as universal love as the means by which this unity is realized.

D. Describe the development and central claims of the Cheng-Zhu or li xue school of neo-Confucianism

1. Discuss Cheng I’s emphasis on learning and knowledge of li or principle as the route to sagehood.

2. Discuss the significance of Zhu Xi’s synthesis of neo-Confucius ideas and his establishment of a Confucian canon.

a. Explain Zhu Xi’s emphasis on intensive reading of the Classics

b. Discuss Zhu Xi’s distinction between lesser and greater learning

c. Describe Zhu Xi’s account of the unity of action and learning

3. Describe Zhu Xi’s idea of ge wu, or the investigation of things.

4. Explain Zhu Xi’s account of human goodness in li, or the principle of humanity, and the origins of evil in its embodiment in qi, or psychophysical substance.

E. Discuss the development of the Lu-Wang or xin xue school of neo-Confucianism

1. Explain Wang Yangming’s slogan that mind is principle.

2. Explain Wang Yangming’s claim that learning involves overcoming selfish impulses and the recovery of our liangzhi, or original (innate) knowledge.

3. Describe Wang Yangming’s account of the ultimate unity of knowing, acting, love and ren, or benevolence.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Identify and Explain the Three Main Divisions of Ethics

A. Identify and explain the differences between meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics

1. Identify the questions addressed by meta-ethics

2. Identify the questions addressed normative ethics

3. Identify examples of issues in applied ethics

II. Identify the Main Claims of and Debates Surrounding Moral Relativism

A. Describe the role of folkways and social customs in shaping the moral beliefs and practices of individuals and societies.

B. Outline the range of cultural diversity in moral beliefs and practices

1. Identify examples of diverse moral beliefs and practices

2. Identify examples of putatively universal moral standards

C. Analyze the idea that customs are what make actions right or wrong.

1. Explain the argument from cultural differences used to support ethical relativism and evaluate the argument’s adequacy.

2. Evaluate the objection that moral relativism entails tolerating demonstrable evil

III. Identify the Major Tenets of Religiously Grounded Moral Traditions

A. Explain and evaluate the basic claims of Divine Command Theory

1. Explain the idea that morality is determined by God’s will.

2. Describe the Euthyphro Dilemma and the problems it raises for Divine Command Theory

3. Identify and evaluate possible responses to the Euthyphro Dilemma

B. Describe and evaluate the basic claims of Natural Law Theory

1. Explain St. Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of the Law as a rule that tends a community toward its natural end.

2. Describe the Eternal Law and the Natural Law

3. Explain the fundamental precept that we should do good and avoid evil

a. Describe the four basic moral values of life, procreation, sociability and knowledge that emerge from the Natural Law, and their implications

b. Explain the two Qualifying Principles of the Natural Law

i. Describe the Principle of Forfeiture and the kinds of behaviors it would allow

ii. Describe the Principle of Double Effect and the kinds of acts it would allow.

4. Identify common objections to Natural Law Theory

C. Explain the basic components of Buddhist Ethics

1. Identify the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eight Fold Path

2. Describe the Doctrines of No Self and Interdependent Arising

3. Evaluate the normative implications of Buddhist teachings

IV. Explain and Evaluate the Basic Claims of Kantian or Deontological Ethics

A. Explain Kant’s account of duty

1. Explain the difference between actions done in accordance with duty and actions done out of duty

2. Outline the difference between hypothetical and categorical imperatives.

3. Explain the difference between perfect and imperfect duties

B. Explain the Categorical Imperative

1. State and describe the application of the formulation of the Categorical Imperative in terms of willing our maxims to be a universal law.

a. Define what Kant means by “maxim” and “universal law.”

b. Explain and evaluate Kant’s claim the immoral acts cannot be willed to be universal laws.

C. State and describe the application of the formulation of the Categorical Imperative in terms of treating humanity as an end in itself.

1. Explain what Kant means by treating humanity as an end as opposed to a mere means.

2. Discuss the difference between persons and things

3. Describe what Kant means by acting as though we were constructing a Kingdom of Ends

V .Explain and Evaluate the Basic Claims of Consequentialist Moral Theories

A. Explain John Stuart Mill’s version of utilitarianism

1. Explain the Greatest Happiness Priniciple

2. State Mill’s definition of “happiness” and “unhappiness"

a. Analyze the objection that utilitarianism is a "doctrine worthy of swine"

b. Discuss the difference between higher and lower pleasures

c. Explain how the difference between higher and lower pleasures is supposed to show utilitarianism is not a doctrine worthy of swine.

B. Discuss the Difference between Act and Rule Utilitarianism

1. Define Act Utilitarianism

2. Define Rule Utilitarianism

3. State the objection that Utilitarianism is unable to allow for the protection of individual or minority rights

4. Explain the argument that holds that Rule Utilitarianism can allow for the protection of individual and minority rights.

C. Summarize some of the major differences between Consequentialist and Deontological Theories

1. Contrast consequentialist and deontological justifications of punishment.

2. Contrast consequentialist and deontological analyses of applied ethical questions such as the permissibility of euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, abortion, etc.

VI. Describe the Emergence and Main Claims of Feminist Ethics

A. Explain the influence of Carol Gilligan’s work in moral development on feminist philosophers.

1. Discuss Gilligan’s distinction between a justice perspective on morality and a care perspective.

2. Analyze Gilligan’s charge that traditional moral thinking was dominated by a focus on justice and ignored issues of care.

B. Describe the natural sentiment of care as understood by care ethicists.

1. Explain the claim that basic human moral sentiments become ethical mandates.

2. Explain the importance of relationship in Care Ethics

a. Discuss the idea of a caring relationship

b. Describe the special importance of the mother/child relationship in Care Ethics

C. Identify and evaluate the challenges to care ethic

1. Explain the claim that the need to resist evil might pose a problem for an ethic based on care.

2. Explain the objection that moral responsibility toward strangers poses a problem for care.

3. Explain why some feminist ethicists see care as potentially limiting and exploiting of women.

VII. Explain and Evaluate the Basic Claims of Virtue Ethics

A. Describe the emergence of classical Virtue Ethics in Greek Philosophy

1. Discuss Aristotle’s definition of "eudaimonia" (“happiness” or “flourishing”)

2. Summarize how Aristotle derives an account of virtue in terms of human functioning.

a. Explain what Aristotle means by a thing’s "ergon" or “function”

b. Identify what Aristotle says is the function of humans

c. Describe how virtues and vices are understood in relation to a thing’s function

3. Identify the two types of virtue Aristotle defines

4. Explain the role the mean plays in Aristotle’s account of virtue and how it is to be determined.

a. Explain how Aristotle uses the idea of a mean to explain particular virtues such as bravery or temperance and vices such as cowardice or intemperance.

b. Describe the role of habituation in the acquisition of moral virtues.

B. Explain the basic tenets of Confucianism

1. Describe the "junzi," or exemplary person, and the role of this ideal in Confucain thought

a. Identify the virtues that describe the "junzi": "ren" (benevolence, consummate humanity), "yi" (appropriateness), "li" (propriety), and "zhi" (wisdom)

2. Summarize the basic elements of Confucian moral education

a. Explain the importance of "li" (ritual propriety) in Confucian moral education

b. Explain the importance of "xiao" (filial piety) in Confucian moral education

C. Describe the revival of Virtue Ethics as an alternative to Deontological and Consequentialist theories

1. Explain how an ethic of being differs from one of doing

2. Describe the advantages of virtue ethics over conduct-centered ethics.

D. Identify common objections to virtue ethics.

1. Explain how indeterminacy is a problem for virtue ethics.

2. Analyze the claim that virtue ethics must be assisted by law which requires some other ethical foundation than virtue.

3. Explain how changes in character count against virtue ethics.

VIII. Explain and Evaluate the Claims of Modern Social Contract Theories of Morality

A. Explain the basic claims of egoism.

1. Describe the differences between psychological and ethical egoism.

2. Identify arguments offered in favored of psychological and ethical egoism

3. Discuss the emergence of our duties to others according to egoism

a. Describe Glaucon’s account of the origins of justice in Book II of "Plato’s Republic"

b. Describe Hobbes' account of the emergence of civil society in "Leviathan."

4. Analyze the popular arguments against psychological and ethical egoism.

B. Summarize the Social Contract Theory of John Locke

1. Identify Locke’s account of the State of Nature and its role in this theory

2. Analyze the idea that we enjoy basic natural rights

3. Describe Locke’s claim that the function of government is to protect our basic rights

C. Explain John Rawls’ contemporary Social Contract Theory

1. Summarize the basic claims of Justice as Fairness

a. Explain the Liberty Principle

b. Explain the Difference Principle

2. Evaluate Rawls’ rejection of Utilitarianism and possible responses.

IX: Demonstrate an Ability to Apply Different Normative Ethical Theories to Applied Ethical Controversies

A. Evaluate the challenges to traditional moral thinking raised by contemporary research in evolutionary psychology, genetics and developmental psychology.

1. Discuss the relevance of current research into the biological and psychological sources of our moral intuitions to moral theory

2. Analyze arguments from the biological origins of our “moral sense” to anti-realist conclusions

3. Apply some combination of moral theories to moral problems such as abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, GLBT issues, animal rights, obligations to the environment, world poverty, torture, etc.

4. Identity the divergent conclusions that deontological, consequentialist and virtue ethical theories tend toward on applied ethical questions

5. Discuss the philosophical merits of competing positions in current controversies in applied ethics

B. Contrast the judgments of different theories when applied to specific moral problems.

C. Evaluate the adequacy of the moral judgments of different moral theories when applied to specific moral problems.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Pre-Socratic Philosophy
   A. The Milesians
      1. Thales
         a. Explain the basis for regarding Thales as the first
philosopher in the West.
         b. Describe what is known of Thales’ account of nature.
      2. Anaximander
         a. Explain how Anaximander responded to Thales’ teachings in
terms of what he accepted, what he rejected, and his basis for rejecting
it.
         b. Describe Anaximander’s account of what exists and how change
occurs.
      3. Anaximenes 
         a. Explain Anaximenes’ amendments to Anaximander’s account of
nature.
         b. Identify the advancement Anaximenes is credited with
introducing into natural philosophy.
      4. The coherence and contributions of the Milesians.
         a. Identify the presuppositions made by all three of the early
Milesians.
         b. Identify the conceptual innovations each of them contributed.
   B. The Transition Philosophers
      1. Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism
         a. Explain the connection between mathematics and the soul made
by the Pythagoreans.
         b. Explain the Pythagorean cosmology as summarized by their
claim, "All things are numbers."
         c. Evaluate the adequacy of this account in explaining the origin
of physical things.
         d. Connect Pythagorean cosmological beliefs with their ethical
and political practices.
         e. Identify the innovations introduced in natural philosophy by
this movement.
         f. Explain why the discovery of irrational numbers produced a
crisis for Pythagoreanism.
      2. Xenophanes
         a. Describe the scientific discoveries Xenophanes is credited
with making.
         b. Explain Xenophanes’ religious views.
      3. Heraclitus
         a. Explain the basis for Heraclitus’ rejection of Milesian
accounts of what exists and how it undergoes change.
         b. Explain Heraclitus’ account of permanence and change.
         c. Assess the significance of Heraclitus’ contributions to
philosophy.
   C. The Eleatics
      1. Parmenides
         a. Explain the controversy regarding whether Parmenides should be
seen as reacting to Heraclitus or Pythagoreanism.
         b. Explain how Parmenides’ poem may be read as a rejection of
Pythagorean dualism.
         c. Explain how the Eleatics introduced logic to advance
rationalism beyond its Pythagorean form.
         d. Explain how Parmenides finds a place for Pythagoreanism in his
‘Way of Opinion’ section of his poem.
         e. Formulate an explanation for Parmenides’ use of the poetic
form in putting forth his account of reality.
      2. Zeno
         a. Connect Zeno’s paradoxes with the issue between Parmenides
and Pythagorean cosmology.
         b. Explain what a ‘reductio ad absurdum’ form of argument is
and show how Zeno can be seen as reducing the Pythagorean account of space
to absurdity.
      3. Melissus
         a. Explain the two sides of the debate over the nature of being
expressed by Melissus and Parmenides.
         b.  Show how Einstein’s solution to this issue that he borrowed
from Riemann is an attempt to reconcile these two sides.
   D. The Pluralists
      1. Empedocles
         a. Explain how Empedocles uses four elements and two forces to
account for reality.
         b. Connect Empedocles’ account with Parmenides’ basis for
rejecting Pythagoreanism.
      2. Anaxagoras
         a. Trace Anaxagoras’ pluralism to the Ionian accounts of
reality.
         b. Identify the significant innovation Anaxagoras introduces in
his account.
      3. The Atomists
         a. Correlate Leucippus’ account of reality with Pythagorean
cosmology.
         b. Explain how the world of sensory objects issues from the
atoms.
         c. Explain how the Atomists’ account of knowledge led to the
basis for skepticism.
         d. Assess the significance of atomism on subsequent science and
philosophy.

II. The Athenian Apex
   A. The Sophists & Socrates
      1. Protagoras
         a. Trace Protagoras’ metaphysical agnosticism and
epistemological skepticism to its roots in Atomism.
         b. Describe Protagoras’ ethical position.
         c. Explain why the Sophists were highly regarded in Greek culture
during this period.
      2. Gorgias
         a. Explain and evaluate the three claims and their supporting
arguments that characterize Gorgias’ teachings.
         b. Compare Gorgias’ position with the modern period British
empiricists.
      3. Socrates
         a. Explain why the historical Socrates is an enigma based on the
sources we have about his life and teachings.
         b. Explain why it is necessary to separate the historical
Socrates from the character in Plato’s dialogues.
         c. Explain why Plato’s ‘Socrates’ has been so widely
accepted.
   B. Plato
      1. Euthyphro
         a. Identify the issue Plato is dealing with in the Euthyphro and
what he seems to be rejecting.
         b. Show how the Euthyphro exemplifies the dialectic process or
"Socratic method."
         c. Explain why the dialogue ends inconclusively.
      2. Apology
         a. Contrast the old accusations against Socrates with the formal
charges made by Meletus.
         b. Explain how Socrates acquired his divine mission and how this
led to the old accusations.
         c. Explain what Plato seems to be trying to accomplish by
manufacturing these old accusations.
         d. Summarize and evaluate Socrates’ defense against the formal
charges brought against him by Meletus.
         e. Describe the facts the jurors would have been aware of which
support the charge of corrupting the youth but which Plato omits any
response to.
         f. Identify the political basis for the charges Plato appears to
be emphasizing.
         g. Evaluate the reasonableness of the penalty Socrates proposed
in Plato’s account against other alternatives available to him.
      3. Crito
         a. Explain the reasons why Crito believes Socrates should escape
from prison and avoid the death penalty.
         b. Summarize Socrates’ argument showing it would be unjust to
avoid the penalty.
      4. The trial dialogues as a philosophical trilogy.
         a. Describe the philosophical problem Plato is posing in the
trial trilogy and explain how each dialogue contributes to the problem and
to his proposed solution.
         b. Explain how this interpretation helps us to understand the
apparently deliberate weaknesses in Socrates’ hypothetical defense in
the Apology.
         c. Evaluate the solution Plato is proposing to the problem of the
social value of the reformer.
      5. Meno
         a. Diagram the dialectic examination of virtue in the first
section of the dialogue.
         b. Describe the learner’s paradox and explain Socrates’
solution to it.
         c. Explain how the interrogation of the slave boy exemplifies the
two stage structure of dialectic inquiry.
         d. Summarize the argument Socrates uses to establish that virtue
cannot be taught, and explain why it must be seen as a satire of sophistic
reasoning.
         e. Explain the satire involved in the conclusion that virtue must
be acquired by divine dispensation.
      6. Theaetetus
         a. Map the dialectic structure of the definition of knowledge
through its three primary formulations and the key objections made to
each.
         b. Explain how Plato uses the reality versus appearances motif in
the dialogue.
         c. Identify the key error Plato believes is being made in
Protagoras’ view that knowledge is simply perception.
         d. Relate Plato’s objection to the modern period British
empiricists’ account of knowledge we examined in connection with
Gorgias’ arguments for skepticism.
      7. Republic
         a. Trace Plato’s justification in Book II for organizing the
ideal state into two classes of people.
         b. Explain why in Book III Plato sees it necessary to add a third
class and to employ a ‘noble lie.’
         c. Explain how Plato uses the harmonious reconciliation of the
tripartite soul to characterize justice in the ideal state in Book IV.
         d. Describe the ‘three waves’ that Plato sees threatening to
swamp his proposal for the ideal state in Book V.
         e. Diagram Plato’s metaphor of the divided line given in Book
VI, and identify the four states of mind he distinguishes along with their
objects.
         f. Summarize the main features of the Allegory of the Cave given
in Book VII, and explain what Plato uses it to accomplish.
      8. Plato’s achievement.
         a. Explain how Plato’s Theory of Forms constitutes a synthesis
of the pre-Socratic conflict over permanence and change.
         b. Explain how Plato’s philosophy constitutes a rejection of
the Sophists’ skepticism and relativism.
   C. Aristotle
      1. The Organon
         a. Identify the four areas of inquiry in Aristotle’s conception
of philosophical thought.
         b. Identify the three basic laws of thought.
         c. Explain the key elements in Aristotle’s syllogistic logic
that permits the determination of the validity of reasoning purely on a
formal basis.
         d. Explain how this logical system along with a theory of
rhetoric allowed Aristotle to confront the Sophists in a way not open to
Plato.
      2. Physics
         a. Explain Aristotle’s form-in-matter doctrine and relate it to
Plato’s Theory of Forms.
         b. Explain Aristotle’s basis for rejecting monism.
         c. Describe the four causes of change Aristotle identifies and
indicate which of these previous philosophers overlooked.
         d. Explain Aristotle’s account of nature.
      3. Metaphysics
         a. Explain why Aristotle’s analysis of the views of his
predecessors is both invaluable and unreliable.
         b. Summarize his objections to Plato’s Theory of Forms.
         c. Describe the four types of change Aristotle distinguishes and
the three elements that exist.
         d. Explain Aristotle’s entelechy doctrine in terms of
potentiality and actuality.
         e. Explain Aristotle’s argument for the existence of a prime
mover.
      4. On the Soul
         a. Distinguish the three types of souls Aristotle identifies.
         b. Explain the powers of the human soul in terms of these types
of souls.
         c. Explain how Aristotle ties reflection and knowledge to his
form-in-matter doctrine.
      5. Ethics
         a. Explain how Aristotle’s definition of the good is a result
of his empirical thesis on happiness and his metaphysical thesis on the
nature of humanity.
         b. Identify the two types of virtue he distinguishes and explain
how he believes each is acquired.
         c. Explain the role the mean plays in virtue for Aristotle and
how he believes it is to be determined. 
         d. Explain how his analysis of moral responsibility can be seen
as superior to Plato’s.
         e. Describe the general conditions Aristotle believes might be
morally excusing conditions for the responsibility of an act.
         f. Explain the influence Aristotle’s ethic has had on both
bio-ethics and natural law ethics.

III. Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy
   A. Conditions that changed philosophy.
      1. Describe the political and social conditions following the
break-up of the Alexandrian empire that caused the shift in philosophy to
an emphasis upon personal satisfaction.
   B. Cynicism
      1. Antisthenes
         a. Trace Antisthenes’ unconventional behavior to the example of
Socrates.
         b. Describe the key elements in Antisthenes’ ethic.
         c. Explain the basis for Antisthenes’ anti-intellectual
epistemology.
      2. Diogenes
         a. Illustrate how Diogenes carried out the message of his mentor
Antisthenes.
         b. Explain the claim that Diogenes was the second king of the
empire.
      3. Crates
         a. Describe the shift made in cynicism by Crates in his
interpretation of natural living.
   C. Skepticism
      1. Pyrrho
         a. Explain the claim that philosophical skepticism was originally
an ethical position using the concept of ataraxy.
         b. Identify the three things Phyrro believed the person who would
be happy ought to consider.
      2. Sextus Empiricus
         a. Describe the skeptics account of ‘the way things are’
according to Sextus.
         b. Explain the state of mind the skeptics strived to adopt and
how they proposed to achieve it.
         c. Identify the four things skeptics followed as operational
guides and the attitude they held toward them.
         d. Explain how the skeptics hoped to avoid the two main sources
of unhappiness.
   D. Hedonism
      1. Aristippus of Cyrene
         a. Trace Aristippus’ hedonism to the influence of Socrates.
         b. Explain the basis for Aristippus’ sensationalism and the
consequences this had for social conventions and theoretical knowledge.
         c. Explain why Aristippus’ view of pleasure requires him to
regard the neutral state of quietude as undesirable.
      2. Epicurus and Lucretius
         a. Explain why Epicurus was disinterested in science and
mathematics but interested in metaphysics.
         b. Explain how Epicurus’ atomism avoided the main sources of
unhappiness in people.
         c. Explain how Epicurus avoided the determinism in Democritus’
atomism and the advantage in doing so.
         d. Explain how he used Plato to avoid the subjectivism of
Aristippus and the Sophists.
         e. Identify the three main positions Epicurus took on ethics and
explain the consequences of each.
         f. Explain how the walled garden makes an apposite metaphor for
Epicurus’ ethic.
   E. Stoicism
      1. Early Stoa: Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus
         a. Identify the ideas the Stoics borrowed from other philosophers
and philosophies in their eclectic position.
         b. Describe the Stoic account of reality and change.
         c. Explain how the Stoics responded to the two major problems
with their world view; the existence of evil and determinism.
         d. Explain how these solutions lead to an ethic based on control
of our desires and emotions.
      2. Roman Stoics
         a. Describe the main contribution of Roman stoicism from
Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius.
   F. Neoplatonism
      1. Plotinus
         a. Identify the elements from Plato’s philosophy that Plotinus
combined with monotheism.
         b. Explain how Plotinus’ metaphor of ‘emanation’ accounts
for creation of things in succession and thus the creation of time
itself.
         c. Describe Plotinus’ accounts of the nature of the human soul
and of matter.
         d. Explain how Plotinus accounts for the existence of evil.

A minimum of three essay exams which will constitute no less than 60%
of the student’s grade. Additional exams, papers, reports, projects, and
quizzes may be used at the instructors’ discretion to assess mastery of
the competencies and to facilitate achievement of the course
objectives.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Introduction to Biology

A. Compare and contrast science, pseudoscience, and non-science.

B. Describe the importance of scientific methodologies.

C. Describe the characteristics of life.

D. Describe the basic features of evolution and the importance of evolution to biology.

II. Introduction to Ethics

A. Compare and contrast morals and ethics.

B. Describe the basic motivations for reasoned ethical discourse.

C. Discuss primary secular ethical theories.

D. Describe deontology, in terms of its major points, including its strengths and weaknesses.

E. Describe utilitarianism, in terms of its major points, including its strengths and weaknesses.

F. Describe religious ethics, in terms of its major points, including its strengths and weaknesses.

G. Compare and contrast religious ethics and secular ethics as they relate to biological issues.

H. Compare and contrast natural law, deontology, virtue ethics, natural rights, and feminist or ethics of care regarding their strengths and weaknesses.

I. Describe the influence of religion on the analysis of current biological issues.

III. Introduction to Case Study Analysis

A. Describe the use of case studies as a means of preparing a reasoned ethical argument.

B. Prepare a detailed analysis of issues.

C. Examine, discuss and critically analyze salient points of case studies.

     D. Develop and describe a personal ethical stance for the purpose of examining provided cases.

IV. Case Study Analysis:

A. Identify and describe relevant biological facts.

B. List and discuss the salient ethical issues.

C. Identify and describe relevant non-biological facts.

D. Identify and describe positions of all stakeholders.

E. Identify and describe ethical considerations.

G. Identify, critique and analyze probable outcomes and solutions.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Introduction

A. Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion

1. Identify questions which challenge the reasonableness of religious belief and commitment.

2. Formulate a working definition of religion.

3. Establish legitimate parameters of philosophical inquiry into questions related to religion.

4. Examine the nature of certainty and the reasonableness of faith based commitments.

5. Identify problems associated with religious language and critically evaluate proposed resolutions of those problems.

6. Compare the views of Aquinas and Hume on analogy.

II. Arguments For and Against God’s Existence

A. The Ontological Argument

1. Review and explain Anselm’s Formulation.

2. Review and explain the modal version of the ontological argument.

3. Critically examine weaknesses and strengths of both the traditional and contemporary ontological arguments.

B. The Cosmological Argument

1. Explain and evaluate the validity of the principle of sufficient reason.

2. Review and explain the cosmological argument.

3. Explain and evaluate the concept of infinite regression.

4. Examine weaknesses and strengths of the cosmological argument.

5. Discuss the adequacy of uncaused first cause as definitive of God.

C. The Teleological Argument

1. Traditional formulations

a. Review and explain Paley’s Watch Analogy. b. Review Hume’s response and critically examine the measure and extent of its validity.

D. The Moral Argument

1. Formulate and evaluate the Moral Argument for the existence of God.

E. The Pragmatic Argument

1. Review Pascal’s Wager and evaluate its relevance.

F. The Problem of Evil

1. Distinguish and evaluate the concepts of moral and physical evil.

2. Explain and evaluate the following traditional concepts of evil:

a. Privation

b. Punishment for sin

c. Test of faith

d. God’s warning

e. A challenge necessary for the building of character

G. The Argument from Miracles and Mystical Experience

1. Define miracle and evaluate the possibility of the existence of miracles.

2. Examine and evaluate Hume’s criticisms of miracles.

3. Evaluate the existence of miracles as a reasonable proof for the existence of God.

H. The Argument from Mystical Experience

1. Review James’ explanation of mystical experience.

2. Weigh the reasonableness of the existence of mystical experience.

3. Evaluate the value of such experience as a proof for the existence of God.

III. Alternatives to Theism

A. Explain and evaluate arguments for the conclusion that religion is an opiate of the people” and exposes individuals to unreasonable manipulation.

B. Review the evolution of materialistic concepts fundamental to humanism.

C. Evaluate the reasonableness of the suggestion that religion is possible without God and that non-theistic beliefs can satisfy religious needs.

IV. Science and Religion

A. Identify questions which have which have brought science and religion into conflict.

B. Examine the religious and scientific perspectives at the root of the disagreements with a view to evaluating the compatibility of the apparently conflicting religious and scientific answers.

V. Morality and Religion

A. Explain the concept of free will and discuss the possibility logical compatibility of free will and an omniscient God.

B. Address the question of the relationship of free will to morality.

C. Explain religion based morality.

1. Explain and evaluate the divine command theory.

2. Explain and evaluate the natural law theory.

D. Show how morality can exist without religion and discuss moral systems which deny the existence of God.

NOTE: Individual instructors may vary the order of the outline as it appears here and may emphasize subtopics of the outline to the exclusion of others. What is assured is that this list of major topics presents the topics to be covered in the course.

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Concepts and Terms

A. Demonstrate a familiarity with and an understanding of the basic concepts and terminology of feminist theory:

1. Bodies

2. Epistemologies

3. Essentialism

4. Social Construction

5. Difference

B. Explain the distinctly feminist theory of language.

C. Describe feminist theories of power.

II: The History of Feminist Thought

A. Demonstrate familiarity with First Wave Liberal Feminism.

1. Explain and evaluate Mary Wollstonecraft’s arguments for the equality of women in Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

2. Analyze Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments.”

3. Describe the claims of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor’s “The Subjection of Women.”

4. Identify the contribution of Charlotte Perkins Gillman.

B. Demonstrate familiarity with Second and Third Wave Feminism

1. Analyze the central arguments of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex

2. Explain the claims and impact of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.

3. Describe the founding of the National Organization of Women and its 1966 Statement of Purpose.

4. Identify the distinctive claims of radical feminisms.

a. Analyze the central claims of Mary Daly’s GynEcology.

b. Explain the arguments of Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics.

c. Describe Catherine MacKinnon’s distinctly feminist political theory.

d. Identify the key differences between liberal and radical feminism.

C. Marxism & Marxist Feminism

1. Identify the central claims of Marxism.

2. Describe the incorporation of Marxism into feminist thought.

3. Analyze additional versions of socialist feminism.

D. Psychoanalytic Feminism

1. Identify the central claims of psychoanalysis.

2. Give examples of and explain the incorporation of psychoanalytic ideas into feminist theory.

III. Women of Color and Global Feminisms

A. Demonstrate familiarity with Black Feminist theory.

1. Explain how traditional feminism what criticized for its lack of attention to race.

a. Describe the claims of the Combahee River Collective “A Black Feminist Statement.”

b. Identify how feminist thought came to incorporate work on other kinds of differences such as those based on Age and class.

2. Demonstrate familiarity with Global Feminist theory.

a. Explain how inclusion of non-Western perspectives led to the development of new feminist epistemologies.

b. Describe the contributions to feminist theory made by thinkers working in non-Western traditions.

B. Demonstrate familiarity with the intersection of feminist theory and Queer Theory.

1. Explain the significance of lesbianism in feminist theory.

2. Describe the idea of gender as performance.

IV. Ecofeminism and Feminist Ethics

A. Demonstrate familiarity with the core claims of ecofeminism.

1. Describe the ties between feminist issues and environmental ethics identified by ecofeminists.

2. Explain the idea of indigenous knowledge and its ties to feminist theory.

3. Explain the distinctive features of feminist ethics.

a. Analyze Carol Gilligan’s criticisms of Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

b. Explain the difference between the justice and care perspectives on moral problems.

c. Evaluate the evidence of gender differences in the resolution of moral dilemmas.

B. Describe the development of Care Ethics

1. Explain the differences between Care Ethics and traditional moral theories.

2. Analyze the feminist criticisms of Care Ethics.

V. Current Issues in Feminist Thought

A. Demonstrate familiarity with feminist analyses such as:

1. Work, Family, and Dependency

2. Sex and Violence

3. Pornography

4. Reproductive Rights and Technology

5. Health, Food, Body Image, and Beauty

6. Human Trafficking

7. Human Rights

8. Terrorism, War, and Evil

B. Demonstrate familiarity with feminist positions on topics such as:

1. Work, Family, and Dependency

2. Sex and Violence

3. Pornography

4. Reproductive Rights and Technology

5. Health, Food, Body Image, and Beauty

6. Human Trafficking

7. Human Rights

8. Terrorism, War, and Evil

Content Outline and Competencies:

I. Francis Bacon

A. Demonstrate an understanding of Bacon's account of the "idols" of thought in his Novum Organum.

B. Give specific instances of Bacon's idols of

1. the cave,

2. the market place,

3. the theatre,

4. the tribe.

II. Rene Descartes

A. Describe the features of Descartes’ account of the personal experiences that led him to adopt rationalism as described in the Meditations and The Discourse on Method.

B. Describe the role of Methodological Doubt in Descartes' epistemological project.

1. Explain Descartes' Dream Argument.

2. Explain Descartes' Evil Genius Argument.

C. Explain the Cogito and its role in Descartes' rejection of radical skepticism.

1. Explain and analyze Descartes' argument that he knows with certainty that he exists as a thinking thing as presented in the Mediations and the Discourse on Method.

2. Describe Descartes' use of clarity and distinctness as a test of the truth of an idea.

D. Describe Descartes' analysis of the piece of wax.

1. Analyze and evaluate Descartes' conclusions regarding the origins of our knowledge of the sensory properties of material objects.

2. Evaluate the strength of Descartes' claim that we know substances by way of the understanding.

E. Demonstrate an understanding of Descartes' argument for God's existence.

1. Explain the Cosmological Argument.

2. Explain the Teleological Argument.

3. Explain the Ontological Argument.

F. Explain the role God plays in Descartes' demonstration of the reliability of reason and the senses.

G. Explain Descartes' conclusions regarding the origin of sensory qualities (colors, smells, etc.) of material objects.

H. Explain Descartes' argument for the conclusion that material objects exist.

III. Baruch Spinoza

A. Describe Spinoza’s two basic criticisms of Descartes.

B. Describe Spinoza’s concept of substance.

1. Describe Spinoza’s concepts of attribute and mode.

2. Explain Spinoza’s rejection of the concept of final causality.

3. Describe the levels or stages of human knowledge.

IV. Gottfried Leibniz

A. Describe the elements of Liebniz’s theory of knowledge.

1. Give examples of Truths of Reason.

2. Give examples of Truths of Fact.

3. Give examples of Analytic and Synthetic Propositions.

B. Describe the relationships between Leibniz’s grammar of propositions and his metaphysics.

C. Explain Leibniz's principles of sufficient reason, non-contradiction, and the identity of indiscernible.

V. John Locke

A. Define "Empiricism" and distinguish it from Rationalism.

B. Demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of Locke's empiricism.

1. Explain and give examples of innate ideas.

2. Explain and evaluate Locke's argument against the existence of innate ideas.

3. Identify apparent counterexamples to Locke's claim that all ideas originate in experience and his responses.

C. Explain Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities.

1. Give examples of primary and secondary qualities.

2. Explain the epistemic significance of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities.

VI. George Berkeley

A. Describe Berkeley’s Empiricism and how it leads to Idealism.

1. Describe Berkeley’s account of the origins of our ideas.

2. Explain Berkeley's challenge to Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities.

B. Demonstrate an understanding of how the denial of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities leads to the idea that objects exist only as perceived.

1. Describe and evaluate the idea that objects are the sum total of their perceived properties.

2. Describe Berkeley's position on causal relations among objects in the external world.

VII. David Hume

A. Describe the principles of Hume’s Empiricism and how it differs from that of Locke and Berkeley.

B. Show an understanding of how Hume challenges the classical conception of causality.

1. Analyze Hume's argument that knowledge of causation cannot be a priori.

2. Explain and evaluate Hume's argument that we never experience causes.

C. Describe the Problem of Induction.

D. Apply Hume’s epistemology to his analysis of the concepts of soul and personal identity.

E. Describe the basic contours of Hume aesthetics.

F. Outline the principal features of Hume’s ethics.

1. Explain and evaluate the claim that reason is the slave of the passions.

2. Describe the main features of Hume's sentimentalist ethics.

VIII. Immanuel Kant

A. Describe the epistemological goals of Kant's metaphysical system.

B. Demonstrate an understanding of the major components of Kant's Metaphysics.

1. Describe the "Transcendental Unity of Apperception" and the "Transcendental Deduction of the Categories of Understanding."

2. Describe Kant's distinction between "phenomena" and "noumena" and their role in Kant's claims about the limits of knowledge.

3.  Explain what Kant means by “intuitions” and how they are informed by thoughts.

C. Explain the sense in which Kant's epistemology is "transcendental."   

1. Give an account of how Kant's metaphysics and epistemology would account for our knowledge of causation.

2. Explain how Kant's epistemology would solve the problem of skepticism.

D. Explain the elements of Kant’s aesthetics.

E. Explain the basic elements of Kantian ethics

1. Explain the difference between an act done out of duty and an act done out of inclination, and between autonomy and heteronomy.

2. Identify the different formulations of the Categorical Imperative.

a. Explain the idea of willing our maxims to be universal law.

b. Explain the idea that all persons are ends in themselves.

c. Explain the idea of a Kingdom of Ends.

Content Outline and Competencies:

Because of the nature of a Special Topics course, the course Content Outline and Competencies will vary, depending on the Special Topic being offered. The Special Topics course outlines must be designed in the standard format for all JCCC-approved courses and must include the standard course objectives for a Special Topics class. The course Content Outline and Competencies must be written in outcome-based language. In order to maintain course consistency, rigor, and uniqueness, each section of this course first must be reviewed and approved by the Philosophy and Religion faculty prior to its being offered. The Arts & Design, Humanities & Social Science Division Curriculum Committee and the Division Dean will review each Special Topics course to be offered and approve the course content. The ADHSS Division will also determine when and if the course may be taught.