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Introduction to Ethics
PHIL102 | 3 Credits
Ethics is all about thinking critically about right and wrong and understanding the rules that guide our decisions. In Introduction to Ethics, you’ll explore major ethical theories, develop your own moral reasoning, and learn how to apply these ideas to real situations.
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About Introduction to Ethics
What You’ll Learn
Ethics is the human exercise of ordering, questioning, and investigating moral rules. According to philosopher Nina Rosenstand, ethics “questions and justifies the rules we live by, and, if ethics can find no rational justification for those rules, it may ask us to abandon them.
- Demonstrate awareness of and ability to recognize ethical thinking.
- Demonstrate knowledge of philosophical doctrines around ethics.
- Develop and demonstrate competency in academic standards for the humanities.
- Participate in global citizenship.
- Develop competency in global philosophical models.
- Perform applied ethics through the practice of academic integrity within academic writing.
- Perform applied ethics through the development of original ethical analyses.
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WANT US TO CHECK?Course Details
Students in our Introduction to Ethics online course will learn established approaches within ethics and will directly participate in the human exercise of ordering, questioning, and investigating moral rules through original ethical analysis. The curriculum emphasizes applied ethics, citizenship, and global diversity.
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OOSL-0123
Flexible Schedule
28-day Average Course Completion
Transferred 4,300 Times
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Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for Introduction to Ethics.
Course Text
The required eTextbook for this course is included with your course purchase at no additional cost.
- Rosenstand, Nina. The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to Ethics. 2024 Release. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2024. ISBN: 9781266549366
Course Checkpoints
Checkpoint 1: Thinking About Values
- Good and Evil
- Debating Moral Issues from Religion to Neurobiology and Storytelling
Checkpoint 2: Learning Moral Lessons from Stories
- Didactic Stories
- The New Interest in Stories Across the Professions
- The Value of Stories Across Time and Space
- Are Stories Harmful? A New and Ancient Debate
Checkpoint 3: Ethical Relativism
- How to Deal with Moral Differences
- The Lessons of Anthropology
- Problems with Ethical Relativism
- Refuting Ethical Relativism
- James Rachels and Soft Universalism
- Ethical Relativism and Cultural Diversity
Checkpoint 4: Myself or Others?
- Psychological Egoism: What About the Heroes?
- Psychological Egoism: From Glaucon to Hobbes
- Three Major Problems with Psychological Egoism
- The Selfish-Gene Theory and Its Critics
- Ethical Egoism and Ayn Rand's Objectivism
- Being Selfless: Levinas's Ideal Altruism Versus Singer's Reciprocal Altruism
- A Natural Fellow-Feeling? Hume and de Waal
Checkpoint 5: Using Your Reason
- Jeremy Bentham and the Hedonistic Calculus
- Advantages and Problems of Sheet Numbers: From Animal Welfare to the Question of Torture
- John Stuart Mill: A Different Kind of Utilitarian
- Mill's Harm Principle
- Act and Rule Utilitarianism
- Consequences Don't Count–Having a Good Will Does
- The Categorical Imperative
- Rational Beings Are Ends in Themselves
- Beings Who Are Things
- The Kingdom of Ends
Checkpoint 6: Personhood, Rights, and Justice
- What Is a Human Being?
- The Expansion of the Concept "Human"
- Personhood: The Key to Rights
- Science and Moral Responsibility: Genetic Engineering, Stem Cell Research, and Cloning
- Questions of Rights and Equality
- Distributive Justice: From Rawls to Affirmative Action
- Criminal Justice: Restorative Versus Retributive Justice
Checkpoint 7: Virtue Ethics from Philosophy
- What is Virtue? What is Character?
- Non-Western Virtue Ethics: Africa and Indigenous America
- Virtue Ethics in the West
- The Good Teacher: Socrates' Legacy, Plato's Works
- The Good Life
- The Virtuous Person: The Tripartite Soul
- Plato's Theory of Forms
- Plato's Influence on Christianity
- Empirical Knowledge and the Realm of the Senses
- Aristotle the Scientist
- Aristotle's Virtue Theory: Teleology and the Golden Mean
- Aristotle's Influence on Aquinas
- Some Objections to Greek Virtue Theory
Checkpoint 8: Virtue Ethics and Authenticity
- Ethics and the Morality of Virtue as Political Concepts
- Have Virtue, and Then Go Ahead: Mayo, Foot, and Sommers
- The Quest for Authenticity: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Levinas
Checkpoint 9: Case Studies in Virtue
- Courage of the Physical and Moral Kind
- Compassion: From Hume to Huck Finn
- Gratitude: Asian Tradition and Western Modernity
- Virtue and Conduct: The Option of Soft Universalism
- Diversity, Politics, and Common Ground? A Personal View
Checkpoint 10: Different Gender, Different Ethics?
- Feminism and Virtue Theory
- What Is Gender Equality?
- Women's Historical Role in the Public Sphere
- The Rise of Modern Feminism
- Classical, Difference, and Radical Feminism
Checkpoint 11: Applied Ethics
- The Question of Abortion and Personhood
- Euthanasia as a Right to Choose?
- Media Ethics and Media Bias
- Business Ethics: The Rules of the Game
- Just War Theory
- Gun Rights or Gun Control?
- Animal Welfare and Animal Rights
- Ethics of the Environment: Think Globally, Act Locally
- The Death Penalty
- The Ethics of Self-Improvement: Narrative Identity
- A Final Word
Assignments & Grading
Your score provides a percentage score and letter grade for each course. A passing percentage is 70% or higher.
Assignments for this course include:
- 4 Benchmarks
- 2 Capstones
- 11 Checkpoints
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Students who enrolled also took:
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Avg Days to Complete: 29
3 credits
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Ethics & Your Career in Decision Making
Introduction to Ethics doesn’t just explore questions of right and wrong — it also helps you develop skills that are valuable in any career. By studying ethical theories and dilemmas, you’ll strengthen your ability to think critically, evaluate complex situations, communicate clearly, and make better decisions. These skills are essential for fields like business, healthcare, law, education, and public service where integrity is of the highest importance.
Why it matters:
- Students save an average of 90% per course on general education courses with StraighterLine.
- Humanities courses teach skills that are meaningful, socially relevant, and uniquely human.
How this course sets you up for success:
Communications Specialist, UX Researcher, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Human Resources Specialist, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, Policy Analyst, Community Outreach Coordinator, Ethics Consultant, Compliance Officer, and Public Health Educator
How this course sets you up for success:
Critical thinking and decision making skills that are highly valued by employers. Get experience learning to navigate complex moral questions so you’re ready to navigate your professional life.
3 Credits
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