Hawaii Pacific University
PHIL 2500 Introduction to Ethics Section ____
Semester and year, meeting times
Instructor: Name, contact information and other relevant information about the instructor.
Course description: In this course you will be introduced to several ethical theories (virtue ethics,
utilitarianism, and deontology), you will critically engage several topics in applied ethics (ranging from
issues regarding terrorism, just war, and environmental ethics to abortion and euthanasia), and you will
give consideration to the nature of moral language (metaethics).
Course prerequisite: None
General Education Requirement: This course is classified under the Values and Choices Theme and
meets the requirement for a course in Values and Choices A: Ethical Inquiry.
General Education Student Learning Outcomes and the Five Themes: HPU’s general education
curriculum is focused around five themes. This course emphasizes the Values and Choices Theme and
provides students with opportunities to achieve the following related general education student
learning outcomes.
Students will compare and contrast various philosophical models of individual ethics and of
collective social ethics. For example, distinctions between virtue ethics,
utilitarianism/consequentialism, and deontology will be made clear.
Students will articulate various ethical and moral questions and explore their own system of
values through examination and analysis of examples drawn from history, literature, popular
culture, or current events and controversies.
Students will understand and analyze the range of consequences that follow from a choice
policy or course of action. Utilitarianism is the paradigm of consequentialist theories,
calculating for pleasures and pains, benefits and harms.
Students will understand a range of meanings for concepts associated with individual and
social ethics such as rights and responsibilities, justice and impartiality, citizenship and social
responsibility. Certainly the names of the theories (in Part I of the course) themselves identify
ethical concepts. And Part III of the course (metaethics) is dedicated explicitly to the meaning
of moral language, dedicated to a consideration of what moral language expresses or does.
Moral vocabulary will prove a central preoccupation throughout the course.
Note: Purple text shows places where specific course information must be filled in. Red text contains
explanatory notes to the instructor which should be deleted before using the syllabus. Blue explanations
above should be rephrased by the individual instructor to reflect the specific approach in that section of
the course. Course specific outcomes below are an example and may also be rephrased or modified by
the instructor
Student Learning Outcomes for PHIL 2500 Introduction to Ethics
Upon successful completion of PHIL 2500 students will be able to
If there are course specific learning outcomes in addition to the gen ed outcomes, list them here.
Otherwise delete this section.
For the rest of these required syllabus items see the details in the faculty handbook. Delete this note
once the syllabus is complete. For online courses there are some additional requirements given at this
link.
Texts List textbooks with ISBN’s and include this language as well
All textbook information (pricing, ISBN #, and e-books) for this course can be found on the HPU
Bookstore website: hpu.edu/bookstore.
If you have any questions regarding textbooks, please contact the HPU Bookstore at:
Phone:
808-544-9347
Or e-mail:
jyokota@hpu.edu
mmiyahira@hpu.edu
Assignments and mode of evaluation
Summary of important dates and deadlines (if the schedule is a separate document and due dates are
not given with the description of the assignments).
Class rules and policies (including regarding attendance, late work and academic dishonesty)
Schedule of events (may be attached separately)