"Kidneys for Sale"

Things we are doing today:

Kidney market

Trailer for Never Let Me Go

For a long time, people preferred to believe these organs appeared from nowhere, or at most that they grew in a kind of vacuum. Yes, there were arguments. But by the time people became concerned about…about students, by the time they came to consider just how you were reared, whether you should have been brought into existence at all, well by then it was too late. There was no way to reverse the process. How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days? (spoken by Miss Emily, in Never Let Me Go)
A scene


Healthcare and privilege

On Tuesday, September 30, instead of my usual 2:30-3:30 office hours, I’ll be leading a workshop on Writing in the Social Sciences with Henry Allen Jr., a colleague who teaches history and government.  The workshop will take place in E-419, and I encourage you to come!  If you were planning to meet with me during that office hours period, please email me so we can schedule a time to meet.

On Wednesday, October 1, I will not be holding my usual 11:30-12:30 office hours.  Instead, I’ll be available 5-6pm that same day.  If you were planning to meet with me during the 11:30-12:30 block and 5-6 doesn’t work for you, please email me so we can schedule a time to meet.

On Thursday, October 2, I will also not be holding my 2:30-3:30 office hours.  Instead, I will hold office hours 5:15-6:15 that same day.  Again, if you were planning to come in the 2:30 block and 5:15 won’t work for you, please email me and we’ll figure something out.

Service Project guidelines

Service Project Guidelines document

Things for class today

The following will be engaged with in class today:

Excerpts from Chapter 7 of Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia

The story of Zacchaeus

Robin Hood (1960)

OPTIONAL ENRICHMENT: If you're really really interested in Nozick, here's the full text of Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

Week 4 readings

Handouts will be made available in class on Thursday, as well as outside my office.

Week 4: Know your rights! (9/23 and 9/25)

Sandel, Chapter 3

Excerpts from Second Treatise on Government, by John Locke

"German Cannibal Tells of Fantasy"

Theodore Dalrymple, The Case for Cannibalism

CNN feature on Blick v. Connecticut

Selections from Compassion and Choices Press Kit on Blick v. Connecticut (read PDF pages 1-3, 5-9, 23-29)

Judge Julia Aurigemma's decision in Blick v. Connecticut (OPTIONAL)

Today, Tuesday, Thursday

Today, we will focus on learning about the outreach project and practicing the skills of inquiry and interview and reporting necessary to do well on the outreach project.

On Tuesday, we will engage with The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens.

So, in advance of class on Thursday, September 18, please read:

Sandel, Justice, chapter 2

Excerpts from Utilitarianism by J.S. Mill

Excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin


In addition, for extra credit:

On Wednesday, September 17, 10am-12:45pm, in D-lounge, BHCC will be celebrating Constitution Day with a marathon reading of the U.S. Constitution.  Constitutions are an important idea in moral and political philosophy.

If you want to earn extra credit, please do the following:

Go to the Constitution Day reading and take part in it, either by reading aloud or by being an attentive audience member, or both.

Read the U.S. Constitution on your own.

Write a comment of 200-300 words on this post addressing ONE of the following prompts:

• The U.S. Constitution was written in the eighteenth century.  Until slightly more than a century before it was written, people in the English-speaking world imagined a "constitution" to be something that was implicit and changing and based on precedent and tradition over time, not something that was explicit and set down in writing at some specific time.  What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a written down constitution?
• Select a "section" of the Constitution, or an amendment to the Constitution, and "excavate" the moral and political philosophy behind it.  What sorts of ideas about authority, personal and community well-being, property, loyalty, the common good, and/or the rights of the individual, can you see in the section or amendment you have chosen?
• This week we are learning about utilitarianism.  Based on what you know about the young United States, when the U.S. Constitution was written, was it "good for the greatest number"?  What about now--is the U.S. Constitution "good for the greatest number" of people in the United States today?

Week 2 readings

Along with chapter 1 of Justice, this is our text for Week 2: The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens.  This is an English court case from over 100 years ago, about sailors in a lifeboat who killed one of their fellow sailors in the lifeboat and ate him.  I strongly recommend reading this and then getting together to pick it apart in a small group--it's a tough text, and it's easier when you read it aloud and parse it together with a few classmates.

Remember, on Tuesday, Sept 9, we meet in E-230 rather than our usual classroom, so that we can have some hands-on time to learn about e-portfolio.  So, we'll discuss our cannibalistic sailors on Thursday.

Evaluation

To clarify how you will earn your final grade...

In-class contributions 30%
E-portfolio 70%

It breaks down like this:

In-class contributions 30%
20% normal stuff, participating every day in class with full engagement
10% your portfolio presentation near the end of the semester

E-portfolio 70%
20% outreach project
30% service project
20% the rest of the e-portfolio--both content and design.  This includes your five essays.

On Tuesday, we're going to explore some moral dilemmas.  This list of moral dilemmas will be important for you for the outreach project, which will be due October 3.

On Thursday, each pair or small group from today will introduce themselves and talk about their moral dilemma and the way their fictional character of choice would respond to it.

For Thursday, please read “How to read a book” and The Ring of Gyges.

OPTIONAL: speaking of invisibility, you might also like to read the Prologue to Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison.  

On Thursday, Tuesday, 9/9, we will meet in E-230, the eportfolio lab, for a hands-on introduction to electronic portfolio.

Intro and syllabus

Welcome!  This is the course website for Ethics, as taught by Monica Poole, at Bunker Hill Community College.  This is an introductory course in moral philosophy.

Here is the syllabus for this course.