Ethics: The Examined Life

 I often tell the young adult students I usually teach that learning how to make moral decisions involves lifelong learning. It seems that life keeps throwing us new moral problems to consider and prompting us to reconsider how we have made such decisions in the past. This class will give us a chance to consider and discuss these issues in an organized way.

What you need to start: an interest in examining moral issues in your own life and in some of the hot-button moral issues of the day.

Session One, May 2: The examined life—a quick introduction to the 3,000-year-old conversation that is moral philosophy. These are the basic thinking tools people have used to consider moral problems. 

Session Two, May 9: The Ethics of Science. Every scientific and medical advance raises moral questions, and we will look at some of them, from genetic engineering to self-driving cars.

Session Three, May 16: Making Life and Death Decisions. Issues from abortion to physician-assisted suicide.

Session Four, May 23: Ethics and Society: What moral duties do we have to our communities? What are their limits and justifications? What does it mean to behave justly as an individual and as a nation? This could involve anything from wheelchair accessibility to charitable giving. But wait, there’s more . . . lifelong learning, after all.

Course materials: There will be suggested readings but no homework except thinking. All the suggested reading will be on the web in one form or another.

Instructor: Tom Evans

Offline Registration: Download PDF Registration Form, complete and mail in with payment.

Registration Questions? Contact us or call (715) 862-0201 or (906) 285-7517.