TOPICS

• What are your fundamental purposes in life, and your more near-term goals, given how you spend your time and energies?
  
• What is your code, given how you actually live?
  
• Why do some people care about being moral and others don't?  How do "morality" and "ethics" relate to your personal identity?
  
• Are all humans basically selfish?  Are all humans partial to their own closest family and friends?  Is either of these okay?
• What sorts of moral compromises do we all have to make? Are some compromises worse than others, or is it all just a matter of opinion? 
  
• Are all the basics of morality included in ordinary friendship: the rules we observe with our friends, the virtues we exhibit toward our friends?
  

We will focus on four basic questions of ethics:

1. "What is your purpose?"
   
2. "What is your code?"
   
3. "Who is 'us' and who is 'them'?"
   
4. "How can we have the best life given the inevitable though manageable tensions among us?"
   

METHODOLOGY

This course relies heavily on movies and documentaries. The point is to consider lots of specific personalities, the situations they find themselves in, the choices they make, and the consequences of those choices. Students will read some classic works in moral philosophy to help us frame our evaluations of these personalities, situations, and choices.  Students will learn about the latest scientific research on morality and ethical functioning in order to understand themselves and their friends and acquaintances in new ways.