S A N T I A G O
C A N Y O N
C O L L E G E
ETHICS
A Course Overview
FALL 2005
FIRST THINGS FIRST
3 Units
Details Released –
The Course
You’ll find some important details here:
PHILOSOPHY 108 - ETHICS
TICKET# 7210802
When: M 7:00p – 10:00p
Where: Room E-205
Instructor: Jim Watkins
Homepage: http://www.sccollege.edu/jwatkins
E-mail: watkins_jim@sccollege.edu
Course website: http://cvc.blackboard.com
Mailbox: Room U-107
Office Location: N/A
Office Hours: By appointment only
Division: Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Division Office: D-128
As described in the course catalog, this course is
designed to assist in clarifying our thinking about
morality and ethics. Further, this course is intended to
increase our awareness of values in personal and
contemporary issues. Also known as moral
philosophy, ethics amounts to the philosophical
justification of morality. Thus, we will explore some
of the ways that people have tried to justify their moral
beliefs through history, and we will try to justify our
current moral beliefs in our own original philosophical
inquiries. An essential component of our inquiries will
involve “thinking out loud” in numerous class
discussions.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will finish philosophy courses with an
enhanced ability to participate in authentic critical
inquiries. These inquiries include group and
individual (or personal) inquiries. Regarding group
inquiries, students will finish the course with an
enhanced ability to present their thoughts to others,
understand the thoughts of others, and balance the
roles of speaker and listener effectively. Students
will finish the course with an enhanced ability to
question given ideas while preserving the respect
and dignity of others. In short, students will finish
the course better prepared for meaningful civilized
discussion. Regarding individual inquiries, students
will finish the course with an enhanced ability to
formulate their thoughts clearly and completely.
Further, students will finish the course with an
enhanced ability to evaluate their own thoughts.
Finally, such self-evaluation will lead to selfcorrection when appropriate.
Students will finish Ethics with an enhanced ability
to evaluate given moral claims. Students will further
develop an enhanced ability to articulate the implicit
strengths and basic challenges to given moral claims.
This includes self-evaluation and self-correction of
one’s own moral claims.
1 of 4
Student
Responsibilities
Accommodations
For Disabilities
Students in this course are expected to attend
classes regularly, participate in class discussions,
and complete all coursework as assigned. Each
student must review the college catalog and
student handbook for a summary of student
responsibilities and college regulations. It is the
student’s responsibility to withdraw officially
from a course. However, a student may also be
dropped for excessive absences when the total
hours of absence exceed 10% of the total
scheduled hours of the class.
Course Grading
Scale:
Percentage
=
90.00% - 100.00 % =
80.00% - 89.99% =
70.00% - 79.99 % =
60.00% - 69.99% =
0.00% - 59.99% =
Points (net)
= Grade
90.0 -100.0 pts. =
A
80.0 - 89.9 pts. =
B
70.0 - 79.9 pts. =
C
60.0 - 69.9 pts. =
D
00.0 - 59.9 pts. =
F
Assignment
Values:
%
Points
25% 25 pts.
10% 10 pts.
10% 10 pts.
15% 15 pts.
20% 20 pts.
20% 20 pts.
(-? )% (-?) pts.
100% 100 pts.
Assignment___________
Participation
Paper (3-5 p. Double-Sp)
Revised Paper (2-3 p. Single-Sp)
Quizzes (3 of 4 @ 5 pts. per)
Exams (2 of 3 @ 10 pts. per)
Final Exam
Penalties (Real World, Absence)
Total
Students with verifiable disabilities who want to
request
academic
accommodations
are
responsible for notifying their instructor and
Disabled Students Programs and Services
(DSPS) as early as possible in the semester. To
arrange for accommodations, contact DSPS at
714-628-4860; 714-639-9742 (TTY- for deaf
students) or stop by the DSPS Center in E-105.
Penalties
Your grade in this course will be based on your
total point balance at the end of the semester.
Occasionally, some students will lose points.
Students who participate disruptively will lose
points. Also, students who miss classes will lose
points. (Indeed, a 3-point penalty will be levied
against your course point total for each and
every absence beyond your first one.) Finally,
students who fail to do their “Real World”
presentations will lose 5 points per.
Make-Ups
There are no make-ups for any of the quizzes,
nor for any of the regular semester exams. Nor
may you take any of the quizzes or exams early.
You may not take the Final early. If you miss
the Final because of some emergency, notify me
at once.
E-mail: watkins_jim@sccollege.edu
Mail box: U-107.)
2 of 4
UPCOMING
ASSIGNMENTS
CLASS ATTENDANCE–You cannot
succeed in this course if you
regularly skip class, or arrive
late, or leave early. You will be
earning points during almost
every class meeting. Many of
these points cannot be made up
afterwards. A role sheet will be
circulated hourly. There is also
an ABSENCE PENALTY – that’s
right – a penalty for missing
class. See details above.
CLASSROOM PARTICIPATION–
You must participate regularly.
You will be working with each
other during various group and
class discussions, and other
projects as well. I know it’s a
cliché, but you will get no more
out of this class than you put into
it. During each class you will be
given a short list of questions or
ideas to reflect upon. You will
discuss these items in small
groups during class. We will then
compare our ideas across the
entire class. Your participation is
worth 25 points.
PAPER – You will need to write a
paper for this class (2-4 pages,
double-spaced). I will give you
more information at a later date.
QUIZZES – We will have four
(4) conventional quizzes this
semester. Each quiz will have
10 questions (or problems)
worth ½ point each. They will
cover material from class. The
quizzes
may
have
any
combination of true-false,
matching, multiple-choice, fillin, short definition, and logic
problems. Your lowest quiz
score will be dropped. You
need a Scantron for each quiz
(that little quiz-sized one).
Study hints for upcoming
quizzes may be given in class
at the end of the class session
immediately preceding the quiz
date. The quizzes will always
be administered at the very end
of class on the given quiz date,
and this is the only time that
students can take the quiz. You
may not take any of the quizzes
early, and “make-ups” are not
available!
EXAMS – We will have three
(3) conventional exams this
semester (excluding the Final).
All three exams will be
comprehensive, meaning that
they will each cover material
from the entire semester. The
exams
may
have
any
combination of true-false,
matching, multiple-choice, fillin, short definition, and logic
problems. Each exam will have
20 questions (or problems)
worth 1/2 point each. Your
lowest regular exam score will
be dropped.
REAL-WORLD
MORALITYCome and share with the class
an example of morality (or
immorality) from the real
world. In other words, find
something that is actuality
happening (or already did
happen) that relates to ethics or
morality. Sometimes news items
are
appropriate
for
this
assignment. Or, it could even
be something from your own
experience. You will find an
item to bring into class for your
scheduled presentation. If you
fail to prepare, or miss class, 5
points will be deducted from the
points that you have already
earned. Each student will do
two (2) of these presentations
this semester – one in the first
half of the course, and then
another in the second half of the
course.
THE FINAL EXAM – We will
have a Final Exam at the end of
the semester. This exam will be
comprehensive, meaning that it
will cover material from the
entire semester. This exam may
have any combination of truefalse,
matching,
multiplechoice, fill-in, short definition,
essay, and logic problems. It
will be worth 30 pts.
SOCRATES
3 of 4
PLATO
ARISTOTLE
Class Calendar (subject to change)
08/22 First Class Meeting
08/29 Quiz #1
09/05 (Labor Day – No Class)
09/12
09/19 Exam #1
09/26
10/03 Quiz #2
10/10
10/17 Exam #2
10/24
10/31 Quiz #3
11/07
11/14 Exam #3
11/21
11/28 Due: Paper
12/05 Quiz #4
12/12
12/19 Final Exam Week
The textbook for this course:
Moral Philosophy: A Reader, 3rd edition, edited by Louis Pojman
4 of 4