Introduction to Ethics:
Syllabus

Course Description:

Our aims in this course will be (1) to enrich our thinking about how to live and act, by means of reading and discussing some of the most historically important moral theories; and (2) more mundanely, to exercise and improve skills in close reading, clear writing, and careful thinking.

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Requirements (grading for the semester is on a 100-point scale):

• Attendance (up to 10 points)
  
• Photo ID Assignment (1 point)
  
• In-class quizzes (up to 20 points; 6 quizzes, 2 lowest grades dropped, no make-ups!, 5 points per quiz)
  
• 4 page paper (up to 20 points)
  
• 6 page paper (up to 24 points)
  
• In-class Final Exam during Exam Period (up to 25 points)

• Class Participation Extra Credit (up to 2 points)

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Texts available at the Bookstore:

• Morgan, Michael L., ed., Classics of Moral and Political Theory
  
• Rachels, James, The Elements of Moral Philosophy
  
• Recommended: Weston, Anthony, A Rulebook for Arguments
  

Course Information

I expect you to attend class regularly, to be prompt, not to leave during class except in case of an emergency, and to pay attention. (Habitual absence or lateness will affect your grade, as specified below.) I also expect you to come to class prepared, with the book or other reading materials for that day with you, having done the reading in advance of the class meeting. (Sometimes the reading is difficult; that means you should read it at least once before coming to class, and then at least one more time after class.) You will get more out of this class if you are responsible about your out-of-class preparation, and if you see class as an opportunity to participate in discussion. Finally, your assigned work for the course should be honest, and should be turned in on time. I stick to the penalties I specify for lateness and for cheating.

Photo ID Assignment:

To help me in getting to know who you are, quickly, I want you to give me a photograph of yourself. Even a xerox of your Hofstra ID card photo is acceptable: after all, even if it won't be the most flattering likeness, it will still bear a general resemblance to you. Make the xerox on, or tape the photo to, an ordinary-sized sheet of white paper. In addition to the photo, the paper should tell me your name, your major, your email address or addresses, and a phone number where I can reach you or leave a message for you. Turning in this assignment is an easy way to earn a point, and not turning it in is a silly way to lose a point.

Attendance and Participation:

Class attendance is required. You may miss up to three classes without excuse and without penalty. (I may count up to three additional absences as excused, if in my judgment the excuse is reasonable, and if you provide appropriate documentation, for instance a doctor's note for the specific date at issue.) From the fourth unexcused absence to the eighth, I will deduct two points for each absence, down to no points out of ten possible for attendance.

Any lateness or early departure from class counts as at least half an absence (either excused or unexcused, depending on whether you provide an excuse in advance). Disruptive behavior (say, having private conversations during class) will also result in deductions from your grade, and in severe cases can result in failing the course.

If you accumulate twelve or more absences of any sort, you are liable to failing the course for non-attendance. In other words, passing this class requires attending it regularly.

Class participation, which can earn you some extra credit, can take many forms. Of course, frequent and constructive contributions to class discussion count. But you can also get credit for participation by sending email asking me a question; by talking to me about the course material after class, or during office hours; and by listening attentively in class.

Quizzes:

Quizzes will consist of short-answer and short-essay questions designed to test your understanding of the basics about the required readings and class discussions. For each exercise, reading for the last several classes, and for that day's class, will be fair game. You will have about fifteen minutes to work on each quiz. Grading will be on a scale from 0 to 5 points. There will be six quizzes, and I will only count the four best grades when figuring your overall course grade. Since this gives you leeway for missing two quizzes, no make-ups will be allowed.

Papers:

I will look for these qualities in an outstanding paper: (1) clear, coherent, and correct writing; (2) relevance to the assigned topic; (3) a high degree of understanding of readings and lectures (parroting is not understanding!); (4) good reasoning (so that, whatever you are claiming, you have supported your claims well, and have been fair to other views); and (5) original and thoughtful discussion of the issues.

Handwritten papers are unacceptable. Papers must stay within the assigned page limits. They must also be double-spaced, with margins of one inch all around, using a standard font size. (This sort of thing doesn't fool me.) Make sure you keep either a disk copy or hard copy of your paper.

Late papers are bad for your grade. (If you ask at least a day in advance for a short extension, and offer me a good reason, maybe I will grant it; but I will not grant you an extension if you wait until the day the paper is due to ask me for it. Note that it is your responsibility to avoid things like last-minute printing disasters by not putting your work off until the last minute!) Usually, if you do not get your paper to me at the class meeting when it is due, your next opportunity to hand the paper in will be at our next class meeting. The lateness penalty is as follows: 5 points out of 100 if you hand the paper to me at the next class meeting; and 10 points out of 100 (a full grade) if you hand the paper to me two class meetings, that is a week, late. I will not accept a paper that is more than a week late; such a paper would earn a grade of 0 points, which would be a very bad thing. (A 0 is a lot worse than an F.) You can avoid all these bad consequences by handing in your paper on time!

If you are having a problem writing a paper, you should talk to me about it, and doing so sooner is better than doing it later.

In the case of a paper that is substantially plagiarized, I will report the plagiarism to the Dean of Students, I will give you a grade of 0 on that paper, and I will not allow you to re-write the paper for a better grade. I take this very seriously. Be honest, and save both me and yourself (mostly yourself) a lot of trouble.

Final Exam:

The final exam will be cumulative (that is, it will cover all the material for the semester). It will involve a mix of short answer and essay questions. Toward the end of the semester, I will hand out a study guide to help you focus on the most important terms, ideas, and arguments. I will also hold a question-and-answer review session to help you study.

Course Grade:

See the percentages listed above for a summary of how the different assignments figure into your course grade.

A total of 102 points is possible for the course. The range for course grades of A- and A will be from approximately 90 total points up to 102; for B-, B, and B+, approximately 80 to 89 points; for C-, C, and C+, approximately 70 to 79 points; for D and D+, approximately 64 to 69 points; for F, below 64 points.

Do not even bother asking for an Incomplete unless you have turned in more than half of the required work for the course and done so on time, have an average of a C or better on that work, have a good attendance record, and can cite and document extraordinary circumstances that make the request for an incomplete reasonable in your case. If you believe your case meets these standards, make sure to ask me about getting a grade of Incomplete before the last class meeting.

If you are doing poorly in the class, and are in danger of failing it, keep track of the deadline for withdrawing from a class. Once that deadline has passed, you can only withdraw from a class after receiving special permission from the relevant Dean. The Dean will not be interested in whether I'd like to allow your withdrawal, and might well decide not to make an exception to the rule in your case.

There are no opportunities for extra credit other than those already built into the syllabus. In particular, it would not be fair for me to give one student opportunities to improve his or her grade that are not available to all students. If you need, say, to pass the course in order to graduate, then make sure you do the work needed to pass; I will not give you a grade you do not deserve simply because it is a grade you need.

Helpful Resources:

On this web site, you will generally be able to find things like paper assignments soon after they are distributed in class. I plan to post a model quiz and a model paper here, after the first quiz and the first paper are graded. The site also includes a select bibliography, and some links to sites about philosophical ethics. For good measure, you can look at my developing on-line handbook about how to do better work in philosophy courses, including hints about doing difficult reading, and about writing well-argued papers.

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Tentative Schedule of Readings and Assignments
Listen in class for announcements of changes!

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