Courses

Philosophy for Children  |  Alex Richardson

This course will provide extended engagement with both the theory and practice of engaging children in philosophical discussion. Topically, students will explore issues in traditional areas of philosophy such as ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology, as well as more specific questions about the philosophical and developmental nature of childhood and the purposes of education. This theoretical work will be supplemented with the development of age-appropriate pedagogies for introducing philosophical ideas to young people through children’s literature. Students will apply their work outside the classroom by leading and facilitating periodic discussion workshops with local children in grades 3-5 at Greencastle’s Tzounakis Intermediate School.

The Ethics Project  |  Jeff Dunn

The highlight of this class is a semester-long, experiential project called the Ethics Project. The idea is simple: Think of something good to do and that adds value to the world. Then do it. To help you implement your project, the Prindle Institute for Ethics will make available to each group at least $600 in funding. This project gives you great freedom to be entrepreneurial, but also great responsibility. At the end you will need to justify the way you spent your time and money. How do you know you added value to the world? Why does it matter? The course content will complement the Ethics Project. In class we will think about different kinds of value, about how values might be measured, and the promise and dangers therein. We will address questions about cooperation and self-interest, as well as foundational questions about the role of business, the role of government regulation, and the role of markets. Thinking about these foundational questions and then implementing the Ethics Project is excellent career preparation. In some jobs, people tell you what to do. But as you advance in your career, you will have jobs where you have to identify what the most important problems are, and then solve them. That is what we will do in this class.

Forgiveness and Revenge  |  David Holiday

What should we do after we, or our loved ones, have been wronged? After you have been abused, mistreated or suffered an injustice, or after your community has been subjected to an atrocity, how should you act towards the perpetrator(s)? Moral philosophers tell us that there is a natural and justified response to moral injury, resentment (or ressentiment). They also tell us that there are two options for how to move beyond resentment: to forgive the perpetrator; or to take revenge against them. And they are almost unanimously in favour of forgiveness and strongly against revenge. This course will explore these issues through engagement with the work of some classic philosophers (Nietzsche, Bacon, Butler and Arendt), as well as contemporary theorists of forgiveness and vengeance (Jeffrie Murphy, Peter French and Charles Griswold). We will explore the almost magical power of forgiveness to release us from an otherwise irreversibly ruined past, and the very real dangers of taking revenge. But we will also tackle difficult questions about the limits of forgiveness, whether forgiveness is possible in political or social-level wrongs, the possibility of unforgivable crimes, and some partial and wholehearted defences of vengeance. A note of caution: The class will involve a viewing of the hyper-violent South Korean revenge film Oldboy, and include readings from post-atrocity contexts such as the Holocaust, which some students may find unpleasant or disturbing.

Ethical Perspectives for Leadership  |  David Holiday

The practice of leading involves the use of interpersonal influence, which means that leadership has substantial ethical aspects “built in.” Leadership must pursue socially elevating goals, and restrict collaborative teams to only good (or at least morally permissible) means to attain them. Leaders must resist various temptations to abuse their position, and their ability to influence others. Leadership tests moral character, and requires a commitment to consistently uphold shared values. It also requires respect, inclusivity and equitable treatment for all members of the team. This course offers students the core tools and concepts needed to grapple with the ethical questions at the heart of leadership. First, we study multiple moral frameworks needed to understand and practice ethical leadership. Then we will engage with case studies, and contemporary literature, considering ethical aspects of leadership including: privilege and diversity; gender and culture; unethical influence (coercion, exploitation and manipulation); bridging the gap between knowing something is wrong and actually speaking up against it; and whether leaders are ever right to make exceptions to practical principles or rules. (The course has no prerequisites, although students will be well served by having completed LEAD 228—Foundations of Leadership. It serves the Leadership minor, and may also count towards the major and minor in Philosophy.)

Ethics in Business  |  Tucker Sechrest

The course examines the ways the market impacts our social and political relations and the ways in which our legal institutions constrict and enable the market. Is the market a friend or foe of equality? What kind of freedom does the free market give us? Do businesses have an obligation to support socially desirable ends? Much of the coursework will be dedicated to tying Supreme Court case opinions to classical and contemporary political philosophy.

Ethics in Action  |  Jeffrey Dunn

This course is an exploration of ethical theory and practice for Hillman Interns at the Prindle Institute for Ethics. The course will introduce you to the basics of ethical theory and also provide you with some of the tools to effectively play your role encouraging ethical reflection and dialogue at DePauw and in the community. This year one large focus of the course will be how to effectively have and facilitate discussions about controversial topics where there is deep disagreement. This is difficult but important work.

Ethics and Business  |  Tucker Sechrest

The course examines the ways the market impacts our social and political relations and the ways in which our legal institutions constrict and enable the market. Is the market a friend or foe of equality? What kind of freedom does the free market promise? Do businesses have an obligation to support socially desirable ends? Much of the coursework will be dedicated to tying Supreme Court opinions to classical and contemporary political philosophy.

Big Questions in Practical Philosophy  |  David Holiday

This course provides an accessible introduction to philosophy through a survey of some classic and contemporary philosophical perspectives on perennial questions relating to life and action. Topics covered will include: the objectivity of ethical values; the relationship between religion and morality; how best to determine “the right thing to do”; what kind of person we should strive to be; and the role of friendships, care, and community in a good life. Emphasis will be placed on the development of philosophical skills, such as argument analysis and evaluation, critical reasoning, clear expression, and productive dialogue.

Ethical Theory  |  Alex Richardson

This course provides an introductory exploration of ethical theory via extended engagement with both influential thinkers from the history of moral philosophy and cutting-edge recent work in normative ethics. Throughout the course, we will focus on questions about the nature of the good life, moral status, and our moral obligations to ourselves and others. We’ll begin with a primer on moral reasoning, developing a useful ‘toolkit’ of various values and methods employed by moral philosophers. Then, we’ll examine normative theories of the good life as advanced by classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, and Immanuel Kant, as well as some of their more recent methodological counterparts. We’ll end our term with an exploration of some normative problems and prospects currently being grappled with by moral philosophers.

Non-Profit Leadership  |  Kristen Fuhs Wells

This course is designed to help students understand the fundamental role of nonprofits, their structures and goals, and how they differ from and are similar to for-profits. Each week will focus on a different theme (e.g., fundraising) and will include in-depth discussion about the ethical dimensions that confront nonprofit leaders in that area. Guest lecturers, real-world cases, and independent and group projects will round out your understanding of key leadership strategies and frameworks. The goal of the class is to help you better understand nonprofits and help prepare you for future interactions with them—whether it’s as an employee, donor, or volunteer/board member.

No matter how busy you are, you can work ethics into your schedule with a quarter-credit Prindle Ethics Reading Course. In these courses, you’ll read and discuss with your professor and classmates a single work to enhance your understanding of the field of ethics or an individual ethical issue. These quarter-credit ethics reading courses allow students to easily weave an ethics component throughout their curriculum while at DePauw. Consult the Schedule of Courses to register for one of these courses today!

Fall 2024 Reading Courses

Instructor: Dennis Sloan
Text: Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of the Life and The Glories of the Gods and Kings

Course Description: Popol Vuh, often translated as “Book of the Community” or “Book of Counsel,” is a sacred narrative of the Quiché people of Guatemala—one of the indigenous Maya peoples who inhabit what is now known as Mexico and Central America. A poetic work that includes the Mayan creation story, Popol Vuh was originally recorded in hieroglyphs. After Spanish colonization, in concert with efforts towards converting indigenous populations to Christianity, Popol Vuh was revised multiple times in multiple languages. This course will focus on Dennis Tedlock’s translation, created from a variety of sources, to consider the implications of colonization, religious conversion, and translation on the ethics and worldview of an indigenous population, as well as the ethics of such processes themselves.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Mondays of the Fall 2024 Semester

Instructor: Farah Ali
Text: Koa Beck, White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind

Course Description: Koa Beck defines white feminism as a “type of feminism that takes up the politics of power without questioning them – by replicating patterns of white supremacy, capitalistic greed, corporate ascension, inhumane labor practices, and exploitation, and deeming it empowering for women to practice these tenets as men always have.” Yet this mainstream version of feminism in the West has been defined and dictated by the white women who benefit from it, when, in fact it does little to dismantle patriarchy. In this course, students will explore the history of feminism in the U.S., its “branding” and staunch support of capitalism, and how Indigenous, black, brown, transgender, disabled, and undocumented women have been marginalized and invisibilized by white feminism. Additionally, we will not only interrogate the individualistic notions of liberation that are centered in white feminism, but also discuss how we can work collectively to resist the systems that perpetuate oppression.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Tuesdays of the Fall 2024 Semester

Instructor: Michael Seaman
Text: Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

Course Description: This course will look at the war fought between Athens and Sparta during their Golden Age, when both states were at the height of their power. The author of the text, Thucydides, was an Athenian general with a brilliant mind and knew statecraft and warfare very well. He saw immediately that the war would be the greatest and most devastating war that the Greek world had seen up to his day. The text describes how people and states behave in times of peace and during war and explores the use and abuse of power. The course will explore ethical questions related to war, foreign policy, diplomacy, and international relations. Ethical themes to be explored are the strengths and weaknesses of democracy, the relationship between democracy and imperialism, treatment of the defeated in warfare, and the function of warfare in society and its impact on political and social history. Additional topics studied include battle formations, armor, generalship, tactics and strategies, weapon lethality, technology and warfare, siege warfare, civilians in warfare, the economics of war, and laws and rules of engagement.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Thursdays of the Fall 2024 Semester

Instructor: Jessica Mejia
Text: Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper

Course Description: It is platitudinous that we want to live good lives or meaningful lives. But what makes for a good life? What are the features that must be in place so that we can be said to have lived a good life? The Grasshopper is a dialogue on the good life. The main character, Grasshopper, argues that the best life is the life of playing games. What a funny claim! Philosophers have put forth many visions of the good life: the life of knowledge, the life of pleasure, the life of accomplishment, the life of devotion, the life of virtue. In this class, we will evaluate Grasshopper’s argument, alternative visions of the good life, and see what we learn along the way.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Wednesdays of the Fall 2024 Semester

Instructor: Victoria Peters
Text: Amy Koerber, et al., The Predatory Paradox : Ethics, Politics, and Practices in Contemporary Scholarly Publishing

Course Description: Scholarly publishing and academia exist in a symbiotic relationship. What happens when open access publishing disrupts the traditional flow of scholarly communication? This new open mindset developed at the same time as an unethical – and sometimes illegal – threat to the integrity of scholarly publishing, known as predatory publishing. Predatory publishers have created a distrust in the open access sphere, but that isn’t the only barrier. There is also the question of who pays for open access? This course will dive into how open access publishing has brought new perspectives on intellectual property, authorship, and trust in published scholarship.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Wednesdays of the Fall 2024 Semester

Instructor: Angela Castañeda
Text: Tricia Hersey, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto

Course Description: What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Does our worth reside in how much we produce? In Rest is Resistance, author Tricia Hersey suggests that we don’t have to be burned out or disconnected from ourselves or those around us – instead she invites us to consider how rest can be a form of justice. She approaches the notion of collective rest as a form of performance art, incorporating elements of Black liberation theology, Afrofuturism and poetry into her messaging. She asks us to consider the relationship between rest and privilege as well as legacies of exhaustion rooted in capitalism and white supremacy. Rest is a radical act, and Hersey’s work invites us to break free from “grind culture” by using rest as the starting point towards healing and justice.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Tuesdays of the Fall 2024 Semester

Spring 2024 Reading Courses

Instructor: David Alvarez
Text: Michael J. Sandel, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

Course Description: This course will consider Sandel’s analysis of 1) the extent to which market norms and ways of thinking have shaped our approach to ethical problems and 2) the difference between having a market economy and being a market society. Sandel’s book poses simple but sharp questions that raise fundamental ethical issues about the proper role of markets in a democratic society. To what extent are market values crowding out civic practices and democratic norms? Can we protect the moral goods that markets do not value? When I taught this book in the spring of ’23, students were especially intrigued by Sandel’s “corruption” objection to applying market thinking to ethical questions. “Markets leave their mark on social norms,” Sandel claims. When something is commodified, its meaning and ethical significance can change. The course is inspired by our Strategic Plan’s vision to think business and leadership through the liberal arts.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: The Prindle Institute
Meeting Time: The first 8 Wednesdays of the Spring 2024 Semester

Instructor: Kayla Flegal
Text: Miroslav Volv, Matthew Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most

Course Description: What makes life good? How have we (individuals, society) determined what is good, true, and right for our lives? These questions do not have answers, but are questions we must ask ourselves to determine where we are, where we are going, where we want to go, and how we might get there. Based on a course they teach at Yale, the three authors present evidence from various traditions and thinkers and leave the hard part, answering The Question, to the individual. This course will explore The Question(s) together as a community, not a group of like-minded individuals but as dynamic friends on varying journeys with different backgrounds and beliefs.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Mondays of the Spring 2024 Semester

Instructor: Yao Li
Text: Yu Hua, To Live

Course Description: Originally banned in China but now called “A Chinese Book of Job”, Yu Hua’s To Live presents a contemporary Chinese society, where after the dramatic highs and lows and all sorts of sufferings and protests, people are still determined to live humanely. The story of one person is the story of every person in China. We may gain a better understanding on how China’s social value system changes, and what could be the key factors in the changing process.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Thursdays of the Spring 2024 Semester

Instructor: Humberto Barreto
Text: John Early, Phil Gramm, Robert Ekelund, The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate

Course Description: This course examines Gramm, Ekelund, and Early’s contrarian book, The Myth of American Inequality. They disagree with the general consensus and claim inequality in the distribution of income and wealth in the United States is misunderstood, mismeasured, and has not been rising. The book is grounded in numbers and data analyses, but we will also discuss philosophical arguments (e.g., Rawls and Nozick) and theories of inequality.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: The Prindle Institute
Meeting Time: The first 8 Tuesdays of the Spring 2024 Semester

Instructor: Joseph Porter
Text: Jane Austen, Emma

Course Description: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a liberal arts college in possession of a Jane Austen novel must be in want of a book club. In this Prindle reading course, we will explore Emma—by many accounts, Austen’s most mature work—with a special focus on the ethical questions it raises about sex, social class, love, relationships, and much more.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: The Prindle Institute
Meeting Time: The first 8 Tuesdays of the Spring 2024 Semester

Instructor: David Gellman
Text: Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

Course Description: How did Abraham Lincoln become the ‘great emancipator’? To answer that question, we have to remove Lincoln from his monumental perch and consider him as a human being. We have to trade hero-worship for history. Fortunately, we have Eric Foner, the greatest living historian of the U.S., and his multi-prize-winning book The Fiery Trial to guide our discussion of how slavery finally came to an end. This book is clear-eyed about how Lincoln came to play a leadership role in this enormously consequential, but painfully incomplete historical transformation. Foner writes that “Lincoln’s career was a process of moral and political education.” Confronting Lincoln’s flaws, shortcomings, contradictions, and blind-spots, as well as probing the sources of his unparalleled accomplishments, we will undertake a moral and political education of our own. We gain a deeper appreciation for the moral potential and moral limitations of political leadership. And in so doing, we become better equipped to battle the evils that plague our own times—from the continuing racist legacies of slavery to the climate crisis.

Course Limit: 10
Prerequisites: None
Pass/Fail Option: Yes
Eligibility: Anyone
Location: Campus
Meeting Time: The first 8 Thursdays of the Spring 2024 Semester