PHIL 110 - Contemporary Moral Issues

5.0 Credits
A philosophical consideration of contemporary moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, discrimination, war, and world hunger.
Prerequisite Placement in ENGL 099.
Course-level Learning Objectives (CLOs)
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Define key terms concerning ethics or morality.
Define the consequentialist and non-consequentialist views of morality.
Describe and critically analyze the two main consequentialist theories: ethical egoism and utilitarianism.
Describe and critically analyze act and rule non-consequentialism, Divine Command Theory, and Kant’s Duty Ethics.
Define such important terms and concepts as universalizability, categorical imperative, human beings as ends rather than means, and prima facie duties.
Describe and critically analyze contemporary social issues such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and reverse discrimination.
Identify the key ethical problems within each social issue, to apply the traditional ethical theories to the solution of these problems and to clarify and communicate a personal judgment about each issue.
Differentiate psychological egoism from ethical egoism and explain both theories.
Distinguish between the two types of utilitarianism.
Describe non-consequentialist theories of morality, showing how they differ from consequentialist theories.
Describe absolutism and relativism and distinguish between cultural and ethical relativism.