Calendar
Part I. Classical Approaches to Ethics
17 January: Plato: Truth, Reason, Rhetoric
Plato: Gorgias and Phaedrus.
24 January: Weaver: A Platonic Ethics of Rhetoric
Readings: Weaver, Language Is Sermonic:
Introduction by Johannesen et al.
“Phaedrus & the Nature of Rhetoric,” pp. 56-86.
“Ultimate Terms . . . ,” pp. 85-112.
“Concealed Rhetoric . . . Sociology,” 138-58.
“To Write the Truth,” pp. 186-98.
“Rhetoric is Sermonic,” pp. 201-225.
31 January: Aristotle on Ethical Decision-Making and Practical Reason.
Reading :(1) Aristotle, Nicomachaen Ethics, Books 1,2,6.
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html
(2) Weaver, “Abraham Lincoln and the Argument from Definition,”
The Ethics of Rhetoric. PDF document.
Case 1: Weaver and Legislation on Stem Cell Research
Christopher Reeves Testimony to Congress, April 2006
http://www.chrisreevehomepage.com/testimony-nih.html
President G.W. Bush on Stem Cell Research, August 2001
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/print/200108092.html
07 February: Casuistry and Practical Moral Reasoning
Reading:(1) Toulmin and Jonsen, Abuse of Casuistry, 1-88; 229-343;
293-31)
(2) Smith, Donald H. “Stories, Values, and Health Care
Decisions.” In Ethical Nexus, ed. Charles Conrad, 123-48.
(3) Bracci, Sharon L. (2002). Bioethics: A "New" Prudence
for an Emergent Paradigm? Argumentation & Advocacy.
38: 151-169. [Available through Lumina.]
Modernist Ethics and Critiques of Modernism
14 February: Kant: Deontological Ethics
Reading: (1) Fundamental Principles of a Groundwork of Morals
First and Second Sections
http://philosophy.eserver.org/kant/metaphys-of-morals.txt
(2) Critique of Judgment, Sections (SS) 51-53
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/k/kant/immanuel/k16j/
Case 2: Revising the STC “Guidelines for Technical Communicators.”
Reading:
(1). STC “Guidelines for Technical Communicators.
Click Here.
(2) Boeyink, David E. (1992). Casuistry: A Case-based
method for Journalists. Journal of Mass Media Ethics. 7
107-120. [Available through Lumina.]
21 February: James Boyd White and Constitutive Rhetoric
Reading: White, Heracles’ Bow, chapters 1, 2, 5, 10
Sophocles, Philoctetes
http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/philoct.html
28 February: Utilitarianism and Pragmatism
Reading:
(1) Bentham. Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation, Preface; chapters I-IV.
http://utilitarianism.com/jeremy-bentham/index.html
Rorty, Consequences of Pragmatism. “Introduction.”
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/
us/rorty.htm
Schiappa. Defining Reality.
Case 3: “Instrumental and Constitutive Rhetoric in King’s ‘Letter. . . .’”
Rhetoric & Public Affairs 7.1 (2004) 37-51. [Project MUSE.]
07 March February: Discourse Ethics
Reading: (1) Habermas, Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action,
pp. vii-115 (close); 116-195 (skim).
(2) Gross and Walzer, “The Challenger Disaster. . .” Argumentation
11 (1997): 75-93.
http://members.aol.com/secondgross/challenger.pdf
(3) Walzer and Gross, “Positivists, Postmodernists, and
Aristotelians.” College English 56 (1994): 420-33.
http://www.jstor.org/view/00100994/ap020419/02a00030/0
Case 4: Debating Definitions.
14 March. Spring Break
21 March: Systematic Distorted Communication.
Reading TBA
Case 5: Ideal Speech Situation
Kennedy Tapes Inside the White House
http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/
Also E841.K4655 1997
Challenger Disaster, Roger’s Commission Report, chapter 5.
http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/genindex.htm
Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Chapter 6
http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/CAIB_Vol1.html
William Langewiesche, “Columbia’s Last Flight,” Atlantic Monthly
(November 3, 2003):58-87 (Optional).
Postmodernist Ethics
28 March: Rhetoric and the Ethics of “The Other.”
Reading: Levinas, Ethics and Infinity.
Case 6: Systematically Distorted Communication
04 April Rhetoric and the Ethics of “The Other.
Reading: Levinas, Ethics and Infinity.
Said, Orientalism (pages TBA).
Case 6: Jerry Lewis Telethon
Laura Hershey, “From Poster Child to Protestor.”
http://www.cripcommentary.com/frompost.html
Laura Hershey, “Distorted History and Voiceless Subjects . . .”
http://www.cripcommentary.com/heal.html
Case 7: Bush on Islam, Muslims.
(1)Bush to Congress after 9/11
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html
(2) Bush’s speech at Islamic Center
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html
(3)Bush Speech on Iran, 2005
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050308-3.html
11 April: TBA
18 April: Student Presentations
25 April: Student Presentations
2 May: Student Presentations.