Freedom and Responsibility (240-0-20)
Instructors
Baron Reed
847/467-6370
Kresge 3-421
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
Many people think that we are responsible for our actions only if we are free agents in acting that way. But there are reasons—from science and from philosophy—for doubting whether we really are free (and therefore whether we really are responsible). In this course, we will examine several different ways of thinking about freedom and responsibility and consider whether they are compatible with scientific ways of thinking about the world. Along the way, we will also look at how freedom and responsibility are connected to other issues, such as responsibility in the legal system, addiction, mitigated responsibility, and the meaning of what it is to be a person.
Learning Objectives
* Attain the conceptual tools needed to recognize and understand prescriptive issues, questions and claims, and to distinguish them from descriptive issues, questions, and claims: we will examine how evaluative claims (e.g., someone is responsible for their behavior) are, or are not, connected with descriptive claims from the sciences.
* Identify the values presupposed by an outlook or discourse: we will examine some of the central questions having to do with human agency.
* Recognize the complexity of many ethical issues and consider a variety of alternative resolutions and the reasons for holding them: we will look at a variety of ethical and evaluative issues (e.g., the problem of evil, the potential for conflict between scientific and religious ways of seeing the world, etc.), as well as their impact on broader philosophical systems.
* Appreciate the insights available in one or more intellectual or cultural traditions: we will look at the intersections and divergences between various intellectual and cultural traditions, including different perspectives on the nature of freedom and justification for punishment.
* Reflect upon one's own answers to evaluative questions, the presuppositions informing them, and the reasons supporting them: we will develop our own interpretations of, and responses to, the views of the philosophers we read, and we will develop our own views about the issues they consider, while uncovering the ways in which our presuppositions may differ from theirs.
* Engage in respectful, rigorous, and constructive dialogue concerning evaluative issues and communicate thoughtfully and clearly about them: we will engage in a variety of individual and group activities that will foster a capacity for critical, charitable discussion, both verbally and in writing.
Class Materials (Required)
All class materials will be available on Canvas at NO cost to the student.
Papers and book chapters on Canvas.
Class Notes
Final exam in class.
Class Attributes
Ethical and Evaluative Thinking Foundational Disci
Ethics & Values Distro Area