PHIL 163.001 – Practical Ethics: Moral Reasoning and How We Live

Instructor: Sahar Heydari Fard. This course meets TR 8:00 – 9:15 a.m. in MU 105.

Are we morally obligated to help the poor? Do we have any obligation to help someone who is in need because of bad luck? Is that obligation any different from the obligation to help someone who is stuck in a bad system or an unjust situation? What is my obligation if I am the victim of an unjust system? Am I morally obligated to resist? Do I have any obligation to support the people who resist? People have strong opinions about the answers to these questions. In fact, our views on some controversial moral issues help define who we are. Although it can be difficult, we want to be able to support our views with clear and persuasive arguments. This course aims to help students do just that. In this course, we will be looking at different answers to these questions as well as assessing their supporting arguments. The general theme of the questions and issues that we discuss in this course can be categorized into four groups: class inequality, gender inequality, racial inequality, and the combination of these three.

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