PHIL 163H.001 – Honors: Practical Ethics: Moral Reasoning and How We Live*

Instructor: Kirun Sankaran. This course meets M 5:15 – 7:45 p.m. in HM 452, with a recitation on Fridays.

*This section is EXCLUSIVELY for first-year Robertson Scholars, and is NOT managed by Honors Carolina. The lecture co-convenes at Duke.

This course draws on contemporary moral philosophy to shed light on some of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. First, we’ll learn how to reason about pressing, difficult ethical issues. Then we’ll worry about some issues that affect professionals. What do doctors owe their patients? Are there constraints on what kinds of clients lawyers should represent? What are the ethical and social obligations of businesses? Afterwards, we’ll concentrate on questions of poverty. What are our obligations towards those worse off than us? How are those obligations to be met? What are the effects of poverty that might ground those obligations? By the end of the course, you should have a good understanding of these practical ethical issues, and, more crucially, be equipped with the conceptual resources to think through new ethical questions and dilemmas as they arise in personal and professional life.

Have registration questions? Our Student Services Coordinator, Rebecca Farris, can help! Please email her at rebecca1@unc.edu for assistance.