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I am writing in response to a current article (“Should Colleges Engage in Ethics Education?,” Oct. 19) by Steven Mintz in regards to the position of ethics in an undergraduate training. He means that, given the current controversial occasions involving Ukraine and Israel and college students’ varied reactions to them, we must always take into account making ethics a required topic for college students. Whereas I agree with the broad options he makes about this and that ethics needs to be taught extra extensively, I’ve some reservations about his proposals.
Mintz notes that the essence of a liberal arts training consists of the power to think twice and purpose about ethical issues affecting society. There isn’t a escaping the sorts of social and political issues which can be issues of ethical concern, to not point out different points that come up for college students about interpersonal relations, sexual relationships, educational integrity, substance abuse, and so forth. It’s not farfetched to assume that college students would profit from some precise examine associated to those vital areas of their lives.
The difficulty considerations how one ought to implement such an strategy at schools and universities. Ought to we simply require college students to take an ethics course from the Philosophy division? Ought to this be one course or two? Ought to we give attention to normal issues of research, or extra utilized areas of debate? There are alternative ways to strategy instructing the topic to college students and Mintz canvases totally different concepts for doing this and notes some issues.
Whereas Mintz is correct to lift some considerations, I might demur at his suggestion that ethics ought to as a normal matter be taught exterior of Philosophy departments (or possibly Faith departments). What struck me as uncommon about his article is how a lot of the fabric talked about is already addressed immediately in present ethics programs that I educate. As an illustration, he means that any programs ought to assist college students learn the way “to assume critically and purpose morally” about totally different points. This sentence seems prefer it’s taken straight out of the syllabus for my ethics course I educate yearly.
Studying to know numerous ethical frameworks is already half and parcel of each normal ethics course being taught in Philosophy departments. College students are taught a variety of views in programs that intention, to not indoctrinate college students to this or that view, however to show them to a broad vary of approaches and points. The intention is to enhance college students’ understanding and talent to assume by way of totally different ethical points and views, to allow them to keep away from the sorts of knee-jerk, emotional reactions that appear to characterize many college students’ preliminary reactions to ethical issues. Furthermore, these programs are exactly within the areas that Mintz suggests may present useful areas of focus. Yearly Philosophy departments provide programs on normal ethics and utilized areas, together with environmental ethics, enterprise ethics, and biomedical ethics.
Mintz worries that the content material of ethics programs in Philosophy could also be too summary and suggests ethics be taught by college inside each self-discipline. Whereas it’s absolutely the case that issues of ethics come up in several programs, and particular person college could also be properly positioned to encourage reflection particularly circumstances, my expertise is that to be efficient college students want a broad and systematic perspective. Not solely have philosophers been instructing ethics for over two thousand years, and so know one thing concerning the pitfalls of instructing the topic, however the reality is that just about each Philosophy professor has taken programs in ethics as a part of their coaching and is acquainted with the topic.
One can sympathize with Mintz’s fear that Philosophy departments might strategy issues too abstractly. However the correct response to that is to go to those departments and ask them to create ethics programs which have a big utilized part. Many present programs on ethics already include a great deal of utilized materials (on abortion, euthanasia, warfare, vegetarianism, and so forth.). It wouldn’t take a lot effort for Philosophy applications to create a broader, normal ethics course to cowl the form of materials Mintz desires.
Whereas I’m unsure concerning the ethics of killing birds for sport, this is able to even be a approach to kill two birds with one stone. Having college students take an ethics course as a part of their training would assist expose them to a central self-discipline within the liberal arts as a part of their curriculum. Most ethics programs embody dialogue of “reasoning” as a particular a part of the course. That is past instructing college students concerning the content material of ethics because it applies to a variety of points that have an effect on them. Requiring such programs could be useful for college students making an attempt to navigate the complexities of the world, and for society which absolutely wants an moral citizenry.
–Mark Sofa
Affiliate professor of philosophy
Seton Corridor College
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