USC Philosophy 140: Contemporary Moral Issues

Spring 2011

Instructor: Associate Professor Mark Schroeder

Location: 101 Mudd Hall of Philosophy
Time: Mon-Wed 2:00-3:15pm
Office Hours: Mondays 3:30-5:30pm, 114 Stonier Hall

Overview

Life is full of decisions. As an individual, you need to make big decisions about what kind of life you want
to live, and also small decisions, about how to spend your time and money. Sometimes you need to make
hard decisions, and feel the conflict between what you want to do, and what your conscience tells you to
do. As groups and as a society, we also have decisions to make. Some decisions are about what kind of
government to have, and how we should collectively make decisions. Others are about what sorts of things
the government should do or be allowed to do, and how it should go about doing it.

Sometimes the decisions that we make are simply a matter of preference. For example, when you are
buying ice cream, the choice between chocolate and vanilla only depends on what you prefer, or what you
feel like. But other decisions raise moral or ethical issues. For example, if you have an unwanted
pregnancy, deciding what to do about it and how to go about carrying out your decision is often a difficult
decision, and raises moral issues that have nothing to do with your preferences.

Arguably, more decisions that you make as an individual and that we make as a society raise moral or
ethical issues today, and hence are not just matters of personal preference, than ever before in history. One
reason this is true is because more choices are possible now than ever before. For example, three hundred
years ago, there was no such thing as a safe, reliable abortion, so there was no interesting decision about
whether to get one. Nor was there such a thing as safe, reliable birth control. A second reason more
decisions raise moral or ethical issues now than ever before is because the consequences of our choices are
more intertwined with each other now than ever before, and we know more about the consequences of our
actions than ever before. When many of us make the same, seemingly innocuous, decisions, the effects can
transform our atmosphere, clog our highways, deplete the oceans, and have other enormous effects.

In addition to your choices raising more moral or ethical issues now than ever before, it is now more
difficult than ever to rely on received wisdom and common sense to make wise and ethical decisions. This
is because received wisdom and common sense are our inheritance from times when fewer choices were
possible, and the effects of our actions were less far-reaching. For example, it isn’t straightforward to apply
common sense to the question of whether it is okay to download pirated music or software from the
internet. Is doing so theft? Because you’re only making a copy, it doesn’t exactly take anything away from

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the original owner, so it’s not quite like the kinds of theft that people have been used to thinking about for
centuries. Presumably this is why many people feel no compunction about doing it. But legally, it is theft.
Is the law right to classify it as theft? It takes more than reciting ‘Thou shalt not steal’ to answer this
question.

Course Objectives

The aim of this course is to think about a variety of contemporary moral and social issues using the tools
of philosophy. These include careful reflection, argument, generalization, counterexample, and thought
experiment. The goal of the course is not for me to tell you what is or is not wrong, but for us all to get
better at thinking for ourselves about what is or is not wrong.

After taking this course, you will (i) be familiar with some of the main arguments and issues that arise with
respect to a range of important contemporary moral issues, (ii) be able to independently read and
comprehend philosophical texts, so as to identify and state the central theses of these texts, and to
reconstruct the key arguments in favor of these theses, and (iii) have begun to develop the skill of critically
evaluating arguments, uncovering their hidden assumptions and assessing the soundness of the premises and
the logical relations between the premises and the conclusion. (ii) and (iii) correspond to two of the
principal learning objectives of the philosophy major more generally.

Required Text

(WW) David Boonin and Graham Oddie, eds., What’s Wrong? Applied Ethicists and their Critics, Second Edition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 2010.

Grading

Midterm Exam (in-class on 3/11) 15%

Comprehensive Final Exam (5/11 at 2pm) 30%
Exercises (5 total, due as indicated below) 20%
1200-1500 word Paper (due 4/24 by 5pm) 25%
Preparation and Participation (in both lecture and sections) 10%

Exams

There will be both a midterm and a final. The midterm will be in-class on 3/9, the last class before spring
break, and will cover all of the material up through the preceding Wednesday, 3/2, making up the first

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half of the course. The final is scheduled in accordance with the university final exams, and will be held on
Monday, 5/9, from 2:00-4:00pm. The final exam will be comprehensive; one quarter of its material will
be based on the first half of the course, and three-quarters will be based on the second half.

The format of both the midterm and the final will be explained as they approach.

Assignments - Exercises

There will be five short exercises assigned over the course of the semester, each to be due on a Wednesday
by the beginning of class (2pm), as follows:

1/26 2/9 2/23 3/23 4/6

Each exercise will be different, and each will be assigned a week before it is due; expect them to be short
but require time and thought. Some are designed to help make sure that you understand the material, some
are designed to help you do the readings in the way that will help you get the most out of them, and some
are designed to help get you ready to write your paper.

Assignments – Paper

There will be one paper for the course, due Friday, 4/22 by 5pm, that is, one week before the end of
classes. It is to be no less than 1200 and no more than 1500 words in length. The idea is not to see how
much you can say, but to give you an opportunity to employ the thinking tools that we will work on in this
course to a topic of interest to you. I will explain the assignment for the paper when the time comes.

Assignments – General

All assignments, including all 5 exercises and the paper, are to be turned in electronically through the
course Blackboard site, where they will be automatically timestamped and graded paperlessly.

Assignments turned in after the deadline will be considered late, and will be penalized 1/3 letter grade per
calendar day. So, for example, an A paper turned in up to one day late would receive an A-, up to two days
late a B+, and so on. Plan ahead, and if you have a legitimate reason, ask for an extension ahead of time.
Your TA will find it much easier to grant you an extension if you do your part and plan ahead, than if you
wait until two hours before it is due and then ‘something comes up’. We want to do our part to make it
possible for you to make it through the semester, so reasonable requests for extensions will be granted
where appropriate. But we don’t want to be taken advantage of, and it’s not fair to your fellow students if
your situation was foreseeable and you didn’t plan ahead for it.

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This should go without saying, but nevertheless here it is: any form of academic dishonesty will merit you
an F for the course. It is your responsibility to understand the standards for basic academic honesty; ‘I
didn’t know that borrowing large chunks of my paper from an article I found online without using
quotation marks or citing the original author was plagiarism’ is not an acceptable excuse. Nor is ‘I thought
that if I changed a few words it would be okay’ or ‘but my girlfriend explained everything to me after she
wrote it, so I really learned just as much this way.’ If you are in doubt about the standards governing
academic honesty, please consult the document on academic integrity available at
http://senate.usc.edu/LinkFiles/Academic_Integrity.pdf. If you are stressed out and scared that you are
having trouble completing one of the assignments, the right strategy is to avail yourself of one of the many
resources on campus, including me, your TA, and the Writing Center. Substituting someone else’s work
for your own cheats you out of a learning opportunity, as well as cheating others in the course.

Preparation and Participation

10% of your grade will be awarded for being present and prepared for class and for discussion, and for
participating in an informed way. If you are uncomfortable speaking up in lecture or discussion, then
please see your TA to discuss how you can demonstrate that you are coming prepared each week and
actively engaged in thinking about the material. We will work with you to find a way for you to
demonstrate your level of preparation and participation in the course material that fits with your needs.

Office Hours

I will be holding office hours immediately after class on Mondays, until 5:30pm. Office hours are an
opportunity for you to ask questions about the lecture or the readings, but they’re also a chance to chat
about how the course is going, to tell me about your ideas about any of the moral issues we’re discussing, to
test out your plan for the term paper on me, or to ask for general advice. If you don’t come to office
hours, you’re not saving me any time; I’ll just be sitting in my office staring at the wall and waiting for you.
So make sure that you take advantage.

Unscheduled Topics

In the schedule of classes, below, one week of topics, toward the end of the semester, remains yet to be
scheduled. Possible topics include affirmative action, racial profiling, war, terrorism, drug legalization,
torture, and voting. I will try to schedule topics of general interest to the class, so please let me or your TA
know which sorts of topics would interest you most to be added to the ones we are already covering.

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Updates

This syllabus is subject to amendment throughout the semester; whenever changes are made to the schedule
of readings, an announcement will be made both in class and by e-mail, and an up-to-date syllabus will be
posted on the course Blackboard site.

Schedule of Classes

1/10 Introduction
No Reading

1/12 Why thinking about morality is hard

Introduction: What’s Wrong With Arguing? WW 1-30

1/17 no class, MLK Day

1/19 How to Evaluate Arguments

Peter Singer, ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’ WW 135-142
‘Is Failing to Contribute to Famine Relief Wrong?’ WW131-134.

1/24 Abortion, week 1: Do fetuses have the same moral rights as we do?
Yes: Don Marquis, ‘Why Abortion is Immoral’ WW 61-69
‘Marquis and His Critics’ WW 58-60

1/26 Abortion, week 1: Do fetuses have the same moral rights as we do?
Not so fast: Gerald Paske, ‘Abortion and the Neo-Natal Right to Life’ WW 70-76
Not so fast: Alastair Norcross, ‘Killing, Abortion, and Contraception’ WW 76-82
Exercise 1 due by beginning of class (2pm)

1/31 Abortion, week 2: Could abortion be okay even if fetuses have the same rights we do?
Yes: Judith Jarvis Thomson, ‘A Defense of Abortion’ WW 89-98
‘Thomson and Her Critics’ WW 85-88

2/2 Abortion, week 2: Could abortion be okay even if fetuses have the same rights we do?
Not so fast: Baruch Brody, ‘Thomson on Abortion’ WW 99-101
Not so fast: Francis J. Beckwith, ‘Arguments from Bodily Rights: A Critical Analysis’ WW 102-107

2/7 Adultery: Is marital sexual infidelity wrong in and of itself?

No: Richard Wasserstrom, ‘Is Adultery Immoral?’ WW 197-205
‘Wasserstrom and His Critics’ WW 194-196.

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2/9 Adultery: Is marital sexual infidelity wrong in and of itself?
Not so fast: Bonnie Steinbock, ‘Adultery’ WW 205-208
Not so fast: Don Marquis, ‘What’s Wrong With Adultery?’ WW 209-216
Exercise 2 due by beginning of class (2pm)

2/14 no class, President’s Day

2/16 Pornography: What, if anything, is wrong with viewing, selling, or manufacturing pornography?
Reading TBA

2/21 Prostitution: What, if anything, is wrong about buying and selling sexual services?
‘Ericsson and His Critics’ WW 233-235
Nothing: Lars O. Ericsson, ‘Charges Against Prostitution’ WW 235-246
Not so fast: Carole Pateman, ‘Defending Prostitution: Charges Against Ericsson’ WW 247-249
Not so fast: Laurie Shrage, ‘Should Feminists Oppose Prostitution?’ WW 250-252
Not so fast: Karen Green, ‘Prostitution, Exploitation, and Taboo’ WW 252-255

2/23 Commercial Surrogate Motherhood: Is anything wrong with paying someone to have your child?
‘Anderson and Her Critics’ WW 330-332
Yes: Elizabeth Anderson, ‘Is Women’s Labor a Commodity?’ WW 333-340
Not so fast: Richard Arneson, ‘Commodification and Commercial Surrogacy’ WW 340-345
Not so fast: Alan Wertheimer, ‘Two Questions About Surrogacy and Exploitation’ WW 345-347
Exercise 3 due by beginning of class (2pm)

2/28 Same-Sex Marriage: Could same-sex marriage be wrong, even if homosexuality is okay?
Yes: Jeff Jordan, ‘Is it Wrong to Discriminate on the Basis of Homosexuality?’ WW 299-307
‘Jordan and His Critics’ WW 297-299

3/2 Same-Sex Marriage: Could same-sex marriage be wrong, even if homosexuality is okay?
Not so fast: David Boonin, ‘Same-Sex Marriage and … Public Disagreement’ WW 307-310
Not so fast: Andrew Sullivan, ‘Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality’ WW 311

3/7 Inheriting Wealth: Does owning something mean you have a right to give it to whom you choose?
No: D.W. Haslett, ‘Is Inheritance Justified?’ Blackboard Course Reserves
‘Is Inheriting Wealth Wrong?’ Blackboard Course Reserves

3/9 Midterm Exam – in class, to cover material up through 3/2

3/14 spring break

3/16 spring break

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3/21 Redistributive Taxation: Is it wrong for the government to tax people in ways that benefit others?
Yes: Robert Nozick, ‘Distributive Justice’ WW 582-592
‘Nozick and His Critics’ WW 580-582

3/23 Redistributive Taxation: Is it wrong for the government to tax people in ways that benefit others?
Not so fast: Alan H. Goldman, ‘The Entitlement Theory of Distributive Justice’ WW 591-600
Exercise 4 due by beginning of class (2pm)
3/28 Topic and Readings TBA

3/30 Topic and Readings TBA

4/4 Euthanasia: Is killing worse than letting die?

No: James Rachels, ‘Active and Passive Euthanasia’ WW 46-50
‘Rachels and His Critics’ WW 44-46

4/6 Euthanasia: Is killing worse than letting die?

Not so fast: Winston Nesbitt, ‘Is Killing No Worse Than Letting Die?’ WW 50-53
Not so fast: Roy Perrett, ‘Killing, Letting Die, and the Bare Difference Argument’ WW 54-57
Exercise 5 due by beginning of class (2pm)

4/11 Capital Punishment: Should we ever kill people as a punishment for their crimes?
‘Nathanson and His Critics’ WW 422-424
No: Stephen Nathanson, ‘… if the Death Penalty is Arbitrarily Administered?’ WW 424-432
Not so fast: Ernest van den Haag, ‘Refuting Nathanson’ WW 433-434

4/13 Moral Luck: Is it wrong to punish people for things that were beyond their control?
Maybe not: Lewis, ‘The Punishment that Leaves Nothing to Chance’ Blackboard Course Reserves
‘Is Punishing People for Bad Luck Wrong?’ Blackboard Course Reserves

4/18 Overpopulation: Is it better for there to be fewer people who are better off?
‘Parfit and His Critics’ WW 348-351
Not exactly: Derek Parfit, ‘Overpopulation and the Quality of Life’ WW 351-357
Not so fast: Tom Hurka, ‘Value and Population Size’ WW 357
Not so fast: Don Locke, ‘The Parfit Population Problem’ WW 358

4/20 Collective Action Problems

No New Reading
Paper due on Friday 4/22 by 5pm

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4/25 Global Warming: Should people who have polluted more in the past be allowed to pollute more in
the future?
‘Traxler and His Critics’ WW 601-604
Yes: Martino Traxler, ‘Fair Chore Division for Climate Change’ WW 604-617
Not so fast: Stephen Gardiner, ‘Ethics and Global Climate Change’ WW 617-618

4/27 Concluding class

No Reading

5/9 Final exam, 2-4pm