Honors Capstone: Moral Responsibility
This course is the capstone of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program and may be taught from the disciplinary perspectives of philosophy or theology. Students will be able to analyze ethical theories and to apply principles of ethical reasoning and individual moral responsibility to contemporary social issues and questions that arise in everyday life.
Students must have 75 credit hours or more to enroll.
This course is the capstone of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program and may be taught from the disciplinary perspectives of philosophy or theology. Students will be able to analyze ethical theories and to apply principles of ethical reasoning and individual moral responsibility to contemporary social issues and questions that arise in everyday life.
Students must have 75 credit hours or more to enroll.
Prerequisites: 75 credit hours or above. Restricted to students in the Honors Program.
Restricted to Students in the Honors Program.
The idea of a moral human right, with associated moral responsibilities, is incredibly influential in the modern world. This course will analyze this idea in depth, serving as an introduction to and exploration of issues in the philosophy of human rights. Throughout the semester, we will discuss how one ought to conceive of and justify human rights, guided by a close examination of various themes and controversies that surround these issues. In doing so, we will engage with three different theoretical approaches: an Individual Approach, which represents the contemporary liberal emphasis on the rights of individuals; a Community Approach, which represents various views (e.g., Communitarian, Confucian, Marxist) that prioritize social connectedness and the rights of groups; and a Marginalized Approach, which represents a family of views (e.g., feminist, anti-racist, intersectional) that privilege marginalized perspectives in addressing human rights issues. By the end of the course, we will be better equipped to answer questions such as: What is a (moral) human right? What connection is there between moral human rights and legal human rights? Which rights are genuine human rights? What does it mean for genuine human rights to be universal? What approach is the right one to take in thinking about human rights? Why has the idea of a human right been so influential? Should it be? How can thinking carefully about human rights help me in engaging morally with our modern world?
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