Ethics

Robert Nozick’s Entitlement Theory of Justice In this section of the course we turn to libertarian justice, a view of distributive justice that rivals Rawls’ liberal vision of justice. Libertarian justice is distinguished by the importance it attaches to private property and by its opposition to what it sees as the coercive tax policies of the modern liberal state. One of the foremost expositions of libertarian justice comes from Robert Nozick, a colleague of Rawls at Harvard University, who, in Anarchy, State and Utopia, argued for what he termed an entitlement theory of justice. Nozick’s entitlement theory draws heavily on the Kantian idea that people should never be used as mere means to an end and on John Locke’s conception of private property. To learn more about this theory and its Kantian and Lockean influences, we turn again to Michael Sandel’s lectures on justice. Sandel’s lecture on justice: Lecture # 5 explores the idea of negative rights and the ethical significance of the freedom to choose, while Lecture # 6 considers Nozick’s famous ‘self-ownership’ argument, one of the foundations for his view that mandatory taxation aimed at promoting the welfare of others is an instance of governments treating their own citizens as ‘mere means to an end.’ Libertarian Justice Once you have listened to the Sandel lecture you should be ready to go to Nozick’s own words, in an excerpt taken from Anarchy, State and Utopia. This excerpt includes Nozick’s view on the jsutification of the minimal state, as well as his Entitlement Theory, for holding private property: http://econ2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ362/hallam/Readings/Nozick_Justice.pdf Discussion Topic 1. What is the difference b/w Nozick’s and Rawls’s interpretation of the concepts of ‘rights’ and ‘desert’? 2. Critique or defend one of these interpretations with respect to distributive justice.

Examine a case that involved product safety or deceptive advertisement. Explain the facts, determine ethical issues, determine why the business did what it did and summarize what the business should have done to resolve the issue.

three short videos link https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/intersectionality-movements-dolores/intersectionality-movements-dolores/ media literacy link https://library.concordia.ca/help/evaluating/evaluating-media.php Intersectionality Intersectionality is at the heart of feminist analysis. This chapter explores how different groups benefit from or are disadvantaged by institutional structures, as well as how overlapping categories of identity profoundly shape our experiences within institutions.

David Hume was a very influential philosopher who lived from 1711-1776. His perspective on ethics was quite different from those whom we have studied so far: he did not believe that ethics was something we could discover using reason. For Hume, reason tells us facts about the world, and ethics describes our feelings toward something that happens. For example, if I say “murder is wrong,” I have not discovered a fact about the world like “the earth orbits the sun.” What I am expressing is an emotion about murder: a bad feeling about it. Hume writes: “Take any action allowed to be vicious; wilful murder, for instance. Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real existence, which you call vice. In whichever way you take it, you find only certain passions, motives, volitions, and thoughts. There is no other matter of fact in the case. The vice entirely escapes you, as long as you consider the object. You can never find it, till you turn your reflection into your own breast, and find a sentiment of disapprobation, which arises in you, towards this action. Here is a matter of fact; but it is the object of feeling, not of reason. It lies in yourself, not in the object. So that when you pronounce any action or character to be vicious, you mean nothing, but that from the constitution of your nature you have a feeling or sentiment of blame from the contemplation of it.” (p. 158 in your textbook) If Hume is right, then the kind of analysis you’ve just been asked to do (using your reason to apply a theory to a particular moral situation) isn’t how morality works at all. While people like Kant and Bentham and Rawls thought that morality meant using our reason to analyze the situation, Hume didn’t think it played that role at all. Morality isn’t something we can find true answers about; it’s just an expression of how we feel. Think about the work you did for this module in the light of Hume’s critique of morality based on reason. Do you agree with Hume? Why or why not? Discussion Assignment Instructions: To complete this assignment, you must first read the Discussion Assignment Instructions thoroughly.

In the Ancient Greek world (the world of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, often regarded as the birthplace of philosophy) a “symposium” was a banquet held after a meal, an “after party” of sorts that usually included drinking, dancing, recitals and engaging conversations on the topics of the day. For our purposes in this course, the Symposium discussions will not involve dancing, recitals or a banquet, but they will provide food for thought on current ethical issues and direct application of the ethical theory discussed in each of these weeks. It is almost impossible these days to turn on the news or log onto social media without encountering a controversy that cries out for ethical discussion. For these Symposium discussions, your instructor will choose a topic of current ethical interest and a resource associated with it for you to read or watch. Your task is to consider how the ethical theory of the week might be used to examine, understand or evaluate the issue. This week, you will consider how deontology applies to a controversy, dilemma, event, or scenario selected by your instructor. It is a chance for you to discuss together the ethical issues and questions that it raises, your own response to those, and whether that aligns with or does not align with a deontological approach. The aim is not to simply assert your own view or to denigrate other views, but to identify, evaluate, and discuss the moral reasoning involved in addressing the chosen issue. Your posts should remain focused on the ethical considerations, and at some point in your contribution you must specifically address the way someone with a deontological view would approach this issue by explaining and evaluating that approach. If you have a position, you should strive to provide reasons in defense of that position. When responding to peers, you should strive to first understand the reasons they are offering before challenging or critiquing those reasons. One good way of doing this is by summarizing their argument before offering a critique or evaluation. You must post on at least two separate days, must include at least one substantial reply to a peer or to your instructor, and your posts should add up to at least 400 words. Your instructor may include additional requirements, so be sure to pay attention to the prompt. This discussion will be assessed on a 10-point scale and is worth 3% of your final grade. Week 3 Symposium Please read the description above and/or watch the video explaining the symposium and its requirements. If you are still unsure about how to proceed with the discussion, please contact your instructor. This week, we will consider how deontology applies to rights. Please read “What We Owe to Others: Simone Weil’s Radical Reminder (Links to an external site.) ” by Robert Zaretsky (If you have difficulty accessing the link, go through the Ashford Library.) Use these questions to guide your reflection: What is the difference between the “personal” and the “impersonal,” according to Weil? Can you see elements of the Categorical Imperative in Weil’s way of thinking of rights?

In this assignment you will be asked to consider the role of organizational leaders with respect to ensuring companies work to create an ethical workplace culture. It is important for all upper level leaders to ‘walk the talk’ so to speak. In addition, many larger companies have a Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer who provides leadership and oversight to the company’s business ethics related endeavors. Recall that Lockheed Martin has such an executive level position. However, not all companies have such a position. In this assignment you will be asked to discuss the contributions of executive leaders and of the Ethics Officer with respect to building an organization that values workplace ethics. What do you believe are the most important characteristics of ethical leadership? Describe the relationship between the ethical leader and the follower. Why is this relationship important for organizations that are attempting to do the right thing? Based on your readings (both the articles provided and Terris’ text), what is the role of the Chief Ethics Officer and how does the role of this person relate to the success of the ethics related endeavors within large organizations? SLP Assignment Expectations Your paper should be 2–3 pages, double-spaced and in 12-point type size. Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate reference page. Make sure you cite your sources. Use APA style, and proofread your paper. Upload your paper by the end of the module.

• Week 8 – Applying Ethical Theories Presentation Week 8 – Applying Ethical Theories Presentation DUE: Jul 26, 2020 11:55 PM Grade Details Grade N/A Gradebook Comments None Assignment Details Open Date Jun 1, 2020 12:05 AM Graded? Yes Points Possible 100.0 Resubmissions Allowed? Yes Remaining Submissions Unlimited Attachments checked for originality? Yes Assignment Instructions Course Objective: CO3 Create a framework for developing one’s own ethical and moral philosophy. ________________________________________ Description: For this assignment you will identify a current ethical issue from those provided, and analyze it from the perspective of Mill’s utilitarianism, Kant’s deontological ethic, and Aristotle’s virtue ethic. Conclude your presentation by defending one of these approaches. You can use the same ethical theory that you used for your Final Paper, or you can use a different one. Format & Expectations: The format will be a PowerPoint presentation incorporating all of the “best practices” demonstrated in the Best Practices presentation in the Supporting Materials. You have the choice of using short, embedded audio clips (no more than 1-2 minutes per slide) to narrate your presentation, or using speaker’s notes. Your presentation should consist of 10-12 slides, including an introductory slide and a reference slide. Submit the presentation as an attachment. For grading expectations, please see the iRubric for this assignment. Note that Sakai has a 50mb limit for uploads. Review the website and the 9 minute video below! https://www.slidegenius.com/blog/top-10-best-powerpoint-design-practices/ Life After Death by Powerpoint 2010 by Don McMillan http://youtu.be/KbSPPFYxx3o Topics: Please select your topic from the following list OR from the United Nations’ list of Global Issues at the link below. http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/global-issues-overview/ • Abortion • Affirmative Action • Animal Rights • Civil Disobedience • Divorce • Euthanasia • Poverty • Terrorism • War Supporting Materials • MYERS Best Practices.pptx (1 MB)

ETHC 101 Capstone Essay Instructions Summary This assignment is an essay that brings all of the knowledge and skills developed in this course to bear on a single ethical issue. Each student will write a 2100-2400 word essay (not including the title page, table of contents, and bibliography) that combines the insights and arguments of the second and third discussion boards into a single carefully-articulated work. Format should be 12pt, Times New Roman font and in Turabian format. Content Begin your paper with a brief introductory paragraph that clearly states your goals, thesis, and method. State what metaethical theory you are contrasting to a Christian ethic, the issue in applied ethics you are addressing, the conclusion(s) on that issue that you want to defend. Next, provide a lengthy and detailed comparative analysis of the two metaethical theories—Christian ethics and another theory—showing which theory is stronger. This will likely reflect what you argued for in your Discussion Board Two thread and the feedback that you received from the professor and/or classmates who responded to your thread. Here you can go into much more detail than you could in the Discussion Board, which was limited to 600 words. If you use half of your paper on this section, then it will be roughly three to four pages. Next, proceed to the applied ethics issue that you discussed in your Discussion Board Three thread. Here you should greatly expand upon your argument. Add detail, nuance, and argumentation, providing a fairly complete and comprehensive argument for how a Christian ethic would approach this issue. Or, if you defended an alternate theory in DB 2, formulate an application based on that theory. You may illustrate the issue with real-life examples, but please do not fill your paper with anecdotes. You should anticipate possible objections to your approach to the issue and respond to them in an objective and informed manner. (For ideas on how others might object to your approach, a good place to begin would be your classmate’s reply to your DB3 thread, but you need not stop there. Your own imagination and the many books and articles that have been published on issues in applied ethics can provide a wealth of possible arguments relevant to every issue.) You are encouraged to use quotes from sources as a way to support your arguments, but quotes should not make up more than one and a half pages of your essay. Your final paragraph should reflect what you have argued in your thesis. It should recap what you have accomplished and how you have accomplished it. Research This paper is not required to utilize any sources outside of those that were used in the class (the two textbooks, the videos, and the PointCast presentations), but use of additional resources is permitted and encouraged. At the minimum the paper should utilize the resources from the class. All resources used must be listed in the bibliography and any resources quoted, paraphrased, or alluded to must be documented via footnotes formatted according to Turabian. While your footnotes and bibliography (if you had one) did not count toward the word count for your discussion boards, for this capstone essay both the footnotes and the bibliography count toward the word count. In other words, the 2400 word limit is all-inclusive. You will be penalized if you exceed the limit, so please do not. Format Your paper must begin with a title page that includes a paper title, your name, the date, and the course name and number. The second page of your paper must be a table of contents. The last page of your paper must be devoted to your bibliography. The paper must utilize 12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with one inch margins. It must be double-spaced rather than triple-spaced between paragraphs and there should be only one space after the end of each sentence. Any documentation in the body of your paper must be done via footnotes formatted according to Turabian. If you are not familiar with how to do this, simply look it up online. There are many websites that explain Turabian formatting. Footnotes should be single-spaced 10 point Times New Roman font. Your paper must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document. If you submit it as a .pdf or anything other than a Microsoft Word document it will not be graded. Format Example Title Page Table of Contents Body of Paper: • Introduction • Metaethic • Application • Conclusion Bibliography Miscellany Proofread your work before handing it in! Errors of spelling, grammar, syntax, and punctuation will affect your grade. This is a university-level writing assignment. Please write accordingly. The deadline for this assignment is 11:59pm on Monday of Module 7. Submit your finished paper via the SafeAssign link on Blackboard. SafeAssign is a program that checks your work for plagiarism. Plagiarism is immoral, unchristian, and will not be tolerated. The consequences for plagiarism are significant and SafeAssign makes it easy to detect. If you are not sure what plagiarism is, it is your responsibility to find out. Ignorance is no excuse. Do not plagiarize! This assignment contributes to achieving and assessing the achievement of all four of the Course Learning Outcomes. This assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week 7.

1.  Evaluate the principles of contemporary business ethics.

Advocate for ethical business behaviors.
Assess the role of a leader in shaping ethical behavior within the organization.
Appraise the level of an organization’s ethical compliance.
Identify ethical dilemmas in the conduct of business activities.
Advocate for ethical business behaviors.
Compare and contrast strategies for ethical decision-making.
Assess the role of a leader in shaping ethical behavior within the organization.
 Explain the characteristics of ethical business culture across industry, national, international, and multicultural boundaries.

Case studies and examples are required as well as thorough research of the topic. References to moral philosophers. Works cited are to include at least six books and two journal articles.

Reference List

1. Scarre, Geoffrey. 2002. Utilitarianism. Vol. Taylor & Francis e-Library ed. London: Routledge.

2. An Examination of the Utilitarian Philosophy By John GroteThoemmes, 1990.

3.Mill’s ‘Utilitarianism’: A Reader’s Guide By Henry R. West London; New York: Continuum, c2007.

4. Utilitarianism and Beyond, edited by Amartya Sen and Bernard Williams. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

5. Quinton, Anthony, Utilitarian ethics. New York: St. Martin’s Press, [1973].

6. Bayles, Michael D. Contemporary Utilitarianism, edited with an intro by Michael D. Bayles.

7. The Limits of Utilitarianism edited by Harlan B. Miller and William H. Williams. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982.

8. Hedonistic Utilitarianism, Tännsjö, Torbjörn, Edinburgh University Press, 1998.