Syllabus

Schedule

Assignments

Extras

Course Objectives

To explore applications of values and ethical considerations from humanistic study to problems of the modern world.

Expectations

In order to accomplish these goals, students should read the selected works of literature with a critical eye and discuss their ideas in the classroom. As this is a small seminar, it will depend strongly on student participation in these discussions. Some of the works on the list of required readings are very long and difficult, and students need to come to class prepared to discuss them.

Students will receive grades on an in-class presentation and a research paper that analyzes the ethics of a chosen work from the reading list.

Your grade will depend primarily on your written work and the understanding of the material that you convey through that work. A command of standard written English and the ability to present an argument will also contribute to the determination of your grade. Any infractions against UMD's Scholastic Dishonesty provisions in the Student Conduct Code as stated in the UMD catalogue will receive serious attention and appropriate penalties.

Individuals who have any disability, either permanent or temporary, which might influence their capacity to perform in this class, are encouraged to inform me at the start of the semester. I can make special adaptations of teaching methods, assignments, materials, or testing as required to provide for equitable participation in the course. The Access Center is also available to assist students with disabilities. It is located in 138 Kirby Plaza and on the web at <http://www.d.umn.edu/access>.

Required Texts

Boyle, T. Coraghessan. A Friend of the Earth. New York: Penguin,

2001.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. 1880. The Brothers Karamazov. Trans. Richard Pevear and

Larissa Volkhonsky. New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1990.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Dutton/Plume, 1998.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1944. No Exit. No Exit and Three Other Plays. New York:

Vintage, 1989.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Signet, 1998.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Marie Boroff. Sir Gawain and the Green

Knight, Patience, Pearl. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.

Twain, Mark. 1890. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Random House,

2001.

Additional Readings

These books are on reserve in the library and may be helpful as you pursue topics pertaining to this course.

Kant, Immanuel. The Moral Law; Or, Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of

Morals. Trans. Brendan E. Liddell. Bloomington, IN: Indiana U. P., 1970.

Kaufmann, Walter, ed. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. New York:

Meridian, 1956.

Kerner, George C. Three Philosophical Moralists: Mill, Kant, and Sartre; An

Introduction to Ethics. New York: Oxford U. P., 1990.

Marcuse, Herbert. Studies in Critical Philosophy. Trans. Joris De Bres. Boston:

Beacon P., 1973.

Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. Ed. Samuel Gorovitz. Indianapolis:

Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.

Nash, Roderick. The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics.

Madison, WI: U. of Wisconsin P., 1989.

Poster, Mark. Sartre's Marxism. New York: Cambridge U. P., 1982.

Rachels, James. The Elements of Moral Philosophy. Philadelphia: Temple U. P.,

1986.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Essays in Existentialism. Ed. Wade Baskin. New York: Citadel

P., 1968.

------"On Genocide." Ecocide in Indochina: The Ecology of War. Ed. Barry

Weisberg. San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1970.