API-602: Ethics in Public Life

Semester: Fall

Credit: 1.0

Faculty: Kenneth Winston

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 9/11
Meet Day T/Th 8:40 AM - 10:00 AM L280
Review F 11:40 AM - 1:00 PM L280

Description

This course in practical and professional ethics helps students develop the competence necessary to acting effectively and well in the real world.  Through close analysis of actual cases, we examine instances of exemplary conduct and attempt to learn from moral failures; engage in ethical debate in the classroom and in writing assignments; trace the connections between ethical judgment and specific public policies; and explore the challenges posed by interactions across geographical and cultural boundaries.  Topics include the meaning of professionalism, the appeal to personal conscience in public decision making, the responsibilities that accompany global interdependence, the problem of “dirty hands,” and the ethics of loyalty and dissent in bureaucratic settings.  Cases from around the world form the primary focus of class discussion, but guidance is also sought from such theorists as John Rawls, Machiavelli, and Confucius.