Can We Ever Agree on Value Judgments? (What’s the Right Thing to Do? What’s Beautiful?)

ETHICS: What’s the Right Thing to Do?

Intro Readings:

• Ethics Intro – Questions-Topics-Myth of Gyges
• Seductive Propaganda- Science and Ethics
• Ethics -Lifeboat -William Brown
• The Right Thing To Do – Rachels
• Quotes On Religion

Other Readings:

• BOOK OF QUESTIONS
• Confessions of a Former Cultural Relativist (Bagish)-> Remember This One?!
• Plato: The Ring of Gyges
• 25 Ethical Dilemmas (Scroll down to list)
• 28 Moral Dilemma Questions
• 10 Biggest Moral Issues in Science
• Notre Dame President Faces Backlash for Pandemic Behaviors (CNN)
• Ethics Unwrapped Blog
• Ethics Theory (in a Healthcare Perspective)
• Can Prayers Heal? Critics Say Studies Go Beyond Reach of Science (NYT)
• Transcending God – Christopher Hitchens Interview (Atlantic 2007)
• Jefferson & Religious Freedom (Atlantic)
• Reading Thomas Jefferson’s Bible (Atlantic)
• My Daughter’s Friends Aren’t Allowed to Play With Her Now That I’m a Single Dad (Atlantic)
• Zoom Refuses to Stream University Event Featuring Member of Terrorist Group
• What Does Brain Research Say About Executing a Man for a Crime Committed at 19?(CNN)
• Cancel Netflix Controversy with CUTIES film
• Supreme Court Relieves Religious Organizations from Some Covid Restrictions (WaPo)
• Pre-Natal Testing & the Future of Down Syndrome (Atlantic)
• Catholic Priests Have Been Celibate for a Thousand Years, But That Could Change
• Did Joe Biden’s First Day Begin the End of Girls’ Sports? (WSJ)
• The Crime of Refusing Vaccination: Our Rights & Our Body v. Duty to Others (Atlantic)
• She Used Drugs While Pregnant; Should Stillbirth Put Her In Prison? (The Cut)
• Pope’s Comments Regarding Having Children (Opinion USA Today)
• Surgeons Attach Pig Kidney to Humans- A Transplant First (NYT)

Viewings:

• CRASH COURSE PHILOSOPHY -YouTube (Always a good place to start!)
  • INTRO -MetaEthics (:10 mins)
  • ALL 7 Videos with Major Theories – #32 thru #38 (All about :10 mins)
  • Moral Luck #39
  • What is Justice? #40
  • Discrimination #41
  • Non-Human Animals #42
  • Family Obligations #43
  • Poverty & Our Response to It #44
  • Assisted Death & Our Value of Life #45
  • What is a Good Life? #46

 

• MOTHER-FORKIN’ MORALS – The Good Place w/Dr. Todd May(YouTube  :5  mins  each)
  • Part 1: Existentialism
  • Part 2: Utilitarianism
  • Part 3: Psychological Egoism
  • Part 4: Kant – Deontology
  • And A Bit More of The Good Place: “Being a Good Person in a Bad Place” (:30 mins ** SPOILER ALERTS IN THIS ONE!**

 

• Kohlberg’s Moral Theory (Again, short videos + a few other resources):
  • Heinz Dilemma: Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development (Interactive :3 mins)
  • Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development (:7 mins)
  • Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development (Article)
  • Kohlberg’s Theory & Stages of Moral Development
  • More Kohlberg
  • Still More Kohlberg….
  • THE DEFINING ISSUES TEST (DIT)

 

• The Prisoner’s Dilemma – Rational Choice Theory (YouTube :10 mins)

 

• Bullies & Burgers!
• What Would You Do?
• Pascal’s Wager – based on math (Youtube :6 mins)
• Ethics in America (Series 1)
• Ethics in America (Series 2)
• Genetic Screening: Controlling Heredity (American Experience Digital Short (:12 mins)
• The Biotech Revolution & Ethics (:9 mins)
• Ricky Gervais & Stephen Colbert Chat Atheism, Religion, Science (:5 mins)
• Science Can Answer Moral Questions (TEDtalk Sam Harris :20 mins)
• “Best of Sam Harris” (YouTube :20 mins)
• Array of Christopher Hitchens
  • Pascal’s Wager
  • Hitchens’s “Ten Commandments”
  • On Christianity Morality & Ethics
  • Better Off Without Religion
  • Immorality of Faith Mentality

 

AESTHETICS: What is Beautiful?

Readings:

• Value Judgements as Knowledge-Aesthetics
• Aesthetics Questions
• Art In a Petri-Dish (2020 Agar Awards)
• Art or Pornography- Baby Bottoms
  • Baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind Album Cover Sues for Child Sexploitation (The Guardian)
  • No Reasonable Person Would Consider Nevermind Cover Child [Exploitation] (Rolling Stone)
  • Grown Up Baby From Nevermind is Suing, A Lesson For Today’s Parents (WaPo)
• Life on the Mississippi – Science & Aesthetics
• Sinfonia: A Legitimate Musical Instrument? (NPR)
• How Fraudsters Dupe the Art World (Verge)
• How a Medusa Sculpture From a Decade Ago Became #MeToo Art (NYT)
• How Beauty is Making Scientists Re-Think Evolution (NYT Extended Article, but worth it just for the pretty pics!)
• Why Is It OK To Be Mean To The Ugly? (NYT)
• Aesthetic Consumerism & The Violence of Photography- Susan Sontag on Visual Culture & The Social Web (BrainPickings)

Viewings:

• Is It Art? (Hopper-“The Fine Art of Separating People From Their Money” Video :2 mins)
• Ode to a Flower (Richard Feynman :2 mins)
• Aesthetics Appreciation: Crash Course Philosophy #30 (YouTube :10 mins)
• Aesthetics: Crash Course Philosophy #31 (YouTube :10 mins)
• What Makes Something Beautiful? (Vox :2 mins)
• Beauty Standards Around the World (:2 mins)
• What is Beauty? Our Perceptions of Women’s Beauty Has Changed Over Time (:3 mins)
• The Wooing BowerBird (NatGeo :2 mins)
• What Is Aesthetics? (Study.com :6 mins)
• My Kid Could Paint That (Official Trailer YouTube)
  • Marla Olmstead follow up
  • Her Gallery
• Does Symmetry Cause Us to Mate? (:5 mins)

Interactives:

• Chasing Beauty: Aesthetics, Society & Science (An Exceptional Quick-Hit, Mini-Course in Aesthetics – Read, View, Interact to the end!
• Beauty or Pornography? The Human Form: ESPN The Body Issues vs. Robert Mapplethorpe (And A Brief History of Representing the Body in Western Painting)

OUR FINAL PROJECT: THE GLOBAL GALLERY

• Global Gallery Project