BARD HIGH SCHOOL EARLY COLLEGE HH4UB
APPLIED ETHICS: THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
Spring 2011
READING LIST
Week 1
Plato The Republic 414b-415d
The Gospel according to St. Matthew 5:1-20, “Sermon on the Mount”
Voltaire, “The Story of the Good Brahmin” (1759), in Ethics, Peter Singer, ed., Oxford
Readers, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.
Kant, Immanuel, “The Categorical Imperative”, Ethics, Peter Singer, ed.
Bentham, Jeremy, “The Principal of Utility”, Ethics, Peter Singer, ed.
Huxley, Aldous, excerpt from Brave New World, Ethics, Peter Singer, ed.
Ayn Rand, excerpts from Atlas Shrugged, New York, Random House, 1959.
Aristotle, excerpt from Nichomachean Ethics, Book I, Chapter 5, trans. James E.C.
Weldon, MacMillan, 1897.
Davidson, RJ, et al, “Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mndfulness
Meditation”, Psychosomatic Medicine, 65:564-570 (2003)
Week 2
Haidt, Jonathan, The Happiness Hypothesis, Basic Books, NY, 2006, Chapters 1 & 5.
Gilbert, Daniel, Stumbling on Happiness, Vintage, New York, 2005, Chapter 11.
Bloom, Paul, “The Long and the Short of It”, The New York Times, September 15, 2009.
[Weiner, Eric. The Geography of Bliss: One grump’s search for the happiest places in
the world, New York, Hachette Book Group, 2008.] Chapter 1, optional
Week 3
Mill, John Stuart, On Liberty, excerpts from Introductory and Chapter 4
(Questions to accompany readings)
Week 4
Excerpts from the edited transcript of an interview by Bill Moyers with
George Koob, M.D. on Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home, WNET,
Channel 13, March 1998.
http://www.thirteen.org/closetohome/science/html/koob.html
Ghosh, Palash R., “The pros and cons of drug legalization in the U.S.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/73582/20101019/drugs-marijuana-californialegalization.htm
“Arguments for and against drug prohibition”, excerpts from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arguments_for_and_against_drug_prohibition
Grillo, Ioan, “Mexico’s Ex-President Vicente Fox: Legalize Drugs”,
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2040882,00.html?xid=huffpo-direct
“In American, Lessons Learned,” The Economist, March 5, 2009.
Blow, Charles, “Smoke and Horrors”, The New York Times, October 22, 2010
“The World’s Most Dangerous drug” (movie about crystal meth):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4694182483714623833&q=worlds+mo
st+dangerous+drug#
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/27/obama-lets-have-a-debate-about-legalizingdrugs/?print=1
Week 5
Garreau, Joel, “A Does of Genius: ‘Smart Pills are on the rise, but is taking them wise?”,
The Washington Post, June 11, 2006.
President’s Council on Bioethics, Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of
Happiness, 2003. Excerpt from Conclusion.
Healy, David, “Good Science or Good Business”. from Prozac as a Way of Life, edited
by Carl Elliott and Tod Chambers, University of North Carolina Press,
Chapel Hill, 2004.
Week 6
Elliott, Carl, Better Than Well, excerpts, including Chapter 2 and Conclusion, Norton,
New York, 2003.
Week 7
Digital Nation, video. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
Week 8
Bittman, Mark, “A Food Manifesto for the Future”,
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/a-food-manifesto-for-the-future/
Auge, Karen, “Spoiled system: Eating healthier comes with a price for families”, The
Denver Post. September 5, 2010.
Week 9
Manier, Jeremy; Callahan, Patricia; Alexander, Delroy, “Craving the Cookie”,
Chicago Tribune, August 21, 2005.
Saulny, Susan, “Heavier Americans Push Back on Health Debate,” NY Times, 11/8/09.
Leonhardt, David, “Fat Tax”, NY Times, 8/16/09.
Fritch, Jane, “Scientists Unmask Diet Myth: Willpower”, NY Times, 10/5/09.
www.NoFoodTaxes.com
“Fast Food Restaurants Dish Up Unhealthy Marketing to Youth; Researchers Release
Unprecedented Report on Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing”,
http://opac.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=7981
Kahan, Scott, M.D. slides from a lecture at TedxManhattan 2011.
http://tedxmanhattan.org/
Week 10
Genesis I; 1-31
Plutarch, “The Eating of Flesh”
Singer, Peter, “All Animals Are Equal” from Animal Liberation, Avon, NY, 1975.
Singer, Peter, excerpt from “Speciesism Today” from Animal Liberation, Avon,
New York, 1975.
Pollan, Michael, excerpt from “The Ethics of Eating Animals”,
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Penguin Press, New York, 2006.
Bittman, Mark, “Rethinking the Meat Guzzler”, The New York Times, January 27, 2008.
Video: "Glass Walls" on www.meat.org
Week 11
Executive summary from “Livestock’s Long Shadow; Livestock, Environment and
Development Initiative”, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United
Nations, 2006.
Rosenthal, Elizabeth, “As More Eat Meat, a Bid to Cut Emissions”, The New York Times,
December 4, 2008.
Video “The True Cost of Food”, http://www.sierraclub.org/truecostoffood/movie.asp
Slides from a lecture by Kelly Brownell, from his course “The Psychology, Biology and
Politics of Food at Yale University, Fall 2008.
[Neuman, William, “U.S. Seeks New Limits on Food Ads for Children”,
The New York Times, April 28, 2011.] Optional
Week 12
Singer, Peter, “One Atmosphere”, from One World: The Ethics of Globalization, Second
Edition, Yale Nota Bene, New Haven and London, 2004.
Heilbroner, Robert, “What Has Posterity Ever Done For Me?”, in Ernest Partridge (ed.),
Responsibility for Future Generations, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, 1981.
Brooks, David, “The Power of Posterity”, The New York Times, July 28, 2009.
Week 13
Smith, Adam, excerpts from The Wealth of Nations (1776).
McCloskey, Deirdre, “The Bourgeois Virtues”, The New York Times, July 30, 2006.
“Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business”
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jm/archives/2005/09/rethinking_the.html reprinted
from Reason magazine, featuring John Mackey, Milton Friedman and T.J. Rodgers.
Patel, Raj, The Value of Nothing, Picador, New York, 2009. Chapter 3
Featherstone, Liza, “Mean or Green: Wal-Mart’s Organic Turn Divides the Movement”,
The Nation, September 11, 2006.
Reich, Robert, “The Paradox”, Supercapitalism, Knopf, New York, 2007. Excerpt from
Chapter 5
[Friedman, Thomas, “The Inflection is Near?” The New York Times, 3/8/09.] Optional
Week 14
Reich, Robert, “The Paradox”, Supercapitalism, Knopf, New York, 2007.
Introduction and Chapter 6.
Speth, James Gustave, The Bridge at the End of the World, Caravan Books,
Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008. Chapter 9.
Video: http://storyofstuff.org/citizensunited
Week 15
Speth, James Gustave, The Bridge at the End of the World, Caravan Books,
Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008. Chapter
Schumacher, E.F., “Buddhist Economics”, Small Is Beautiful, Harper & Row, NY, 1973.
Smith, Adam “Parable of the Poor Man’s Son”, Theory Moral Sentiments (1759)
For further reading, we especially recommend the following books from which your
assignments were taken, some we wish we had time for, plus a couple of others:
Aboujaoude, Elias, M.D. Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality.
W.W. Norton & Co, New York, 2011.
The perils of the internet.
DeBotton, Alain. The Consolations of Philosophy, Vintage, New York, 2000.
Fun (and funny) philosophy! De Botton riffs on key ideas of six great
philosophers to give advice for living. This book started our teaching
partnership.
Eisenberg, Evan. The Ecology of Eden, New York, Vintage, 1998.
A hefty but absorbing book that considers the relationship of humans with (other
forms of) nature, incorporating anthropology, biology, history, literature, art,
music and biblical studies. He proposes that our future depends on a kind of Earth
Jazz, improvisations acutely attuned to our environment.
Forster, E.M., “The Machine Stops”, 1909.
An amazingly prescient short story about the effects of technology on humans.
Fukuyama, Francis. Our Posthuman Future. Picador (Farrar, Straus and Giroux),
New York, 2002.
A member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and important contemporary
ethicist, Fukuyama discusses his concern about how in pursuing enhancements
through technology and drugs we may lose our humanity. Conservative and
cautionary, his writing is thoughtful and provocative.
Haidt, Jonathan, The Happiness Hypothesis, Basic Books, NY, 2006.
The metaphor of the elephant is just the beginning of this intriguing, sometimes
inspiring book, about making meaning in our lives. As the author says, “ each
chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the
world’s civilizations – to question it in the light of what we now know from
scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern
lives.
McGonigal, Jane. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can
Change the World. Penguin Press, New York, 2011.
A lively book by a game designer who thinks virtual gaming makes us better
people. Since “reality is broken”, it’s better to be in virtual worlds, where we may
learn lessons to improve the real one. She describes some games that happen in
the real world too, bringing people together for cooperative accomplishments.
McKibben, Bill. Deep Economy, New York, Times Books, 2007.
An eloquent discussion of the interplay of economics and the environment,
including a chapter that you were almost assigned, “The Year of Eating Locally.”
Patterson, Charles. Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust,
Lantern Books, New York, 2002.
Connects the industrialized slaughter of animals and people. Isaac Bashevis
Singer figures as an advocate for treating animals well.
Plato. The Republic. This book was the beginning of western political philosophy.
Incomparable and more understandable than you might expect.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, New York, The Penguin Press, 2008.
Already a classic and extremely influential in raising people’s awareness about
the food we eat and where it comes from.
Rachels, James. The Elements of Moral Philosophy. McGraw Hill, 2003.
A clear, concise text about the basic principles of ethics.
Siegel, Lee. Against the Machine: How the Web is Reshaping Culture and Commerce –
and Why It Matters. Spiegel and Grau, New York, 2009.
A short book (good for the brain distracted by internet use) that cautions us about
how the internet manipulates us.
Speth, James Gustave. The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the
Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. Yale University Press,
New Haven, 2008.
A sobering look at the environmental consequences of our consuming, capitalist
economy and culture by the former dean of the School of Forestry at Yale – but
with an optimistic belief that we can still turn things around.
Weiner, Eric. The Geography of Bliss: One grump’s search for the happiest places in
the world, New York, Hachette Book Group, 2008.
A funny and fascinating account of different versions of the Good Life around the
world. It incorporates explanations of contemporary happiness studies.
Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal, New York: Vintage, 1994. (also in a new edition)
In this influential book, Wright juxtaposes a history of Charles Darwin with an
exploration of evolutionary psychology. He “unveils the unconscious strategies
that shape our romantic choices, familial feelings, friendships and office politics.”
One of my favorite books!
And for fun:
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/fullepisodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=227611 Stephen Colbert’s take on the proposed soda
tax starts at 3:30. He also tries some really expensive food and interviews Michael Pollan.
For an interview with Raj Patel:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/261500/january-12-2010/rajpatel But if you watch that, you also have to watch this!:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/267526/march-15-2010/i-can-tbelieve-it-s-not-buddha---raj-patel