Teaching Ethics

In recent years, ‘philosophy as a way of life’ [PWOL] courses have emerged as an exciting new pedagogical approach. I explain here what a PWOL-course is. In doing so, I argue that the standard method for teaching such courses—what I call the ‘Smorgasbord Model’—presents us with a basic problem: viz., how to enable students in the context of a modern university setting to experience fully what a PWOL is. I propose a solution to this problem by exploring a PWOL that most teachers and students alike already find themselves immersed in, what I describe as political liberalism applied to the context of the university classroom. I show how this overlooked fact not only offers us a novel resource for teaching a PWOL-course. It also helps us as philosophy teachers—in a meta-pedagogical sense—to become more self-reflective about and appreciative of our underlying ethical commitments when teaching philosophy.

This article discusses the integration of principle-based ethics into business ethics education. It explains how several pedagogical innovations were successfully undertaken in over 20 business ethics courses taught since 2018 to enhance active student engagement with a principle-based ethical framework central to decision making in the complex environment that many organizations face on a day-to-day basis. The teaching initiatives used include case-based projects and discussions, a personal code of ethics developed by each student, and an arts-inspired presentation as well as a student integrity and citizenship rubric assessing students’ ethical conduct throughout each course. To date, this approach to principle-based ethics education seems to deliver very promising results.

A perennial topic in introductory ethics classes, abortion has offered students a real-life issue to critically analyze. In this paper, I argue that a popular approach to teaching abortion in such classes fails to attend to the relevant political context of the issue and that this contributes to harms against pregnant people. I will argue for these conclusions by identifying three related problems with such an approach: these lessons frame a political issue as apolitical, value impartiality over lived experiences in moral assessment, and objectify the already-objectified group of pregnant people in the course of debating about them. I will then point to considerations that may help counter the harms caused by this approach and informed by these problems. These involve framing abortion lessons in terms of the relevant political and historical context of abortion and incorporating first-person accounts that engage with the embodied, lived experiences of abortion.

Despite the popularity of leadership studies programs at universities, critics have questioned their purpose, costs, and outcomes. In the face of these questions, two ethics faculty who have taught in such programs explore more specifically the purpose of leadership ethics education within higher education. The “Proponent” speaks on behalf of these programs and the “Skeptic,” responds, well, skeptically. Originally an oral presentation, the dialogue engages in a fair share of rhetoric and comedy in trading points of view. It concludes with a set of questions that might be used by others engaged in such work.

Alongside fostering academic excellence in their students, many colleges and universities aspire to cultivate responsible citizens. In this article, I explore some challenges accompanying this task and offer my Ethics in Political Action course as one approach to support students’ development as ethically engaged citizens. I begin by outlining two obstacles which make pursuing this civic mission difficult, speaking both as a faculty member and Christian ethicist who works at the intersection of religion and politics. I then describe my Ethics in Political Action course, which examines various forms of political participation so that students can explore ethical issues embedded in U.S. political life as well as critically reflect on their own political activity. By weaving together civic education with the questions and insights of the Christian ethical tradition, this course equips students with the political knowledge and skills they need to engage effectively and ethically in the U.S. today.

Antiracist educators believe that education exists within a racial hierarchy and that students have a right to have their full, intersectional, pluralistic humanity affirmed. Antiracism is an ongoing collective process of learning about and working to eradicate persistent structural barriers. Likewise, teaching ethically involves a commitment to ensure learning creates equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Antiracist education, then, is profoundly ethical for it is rooted in increasing understanding of all people’s experiences and confronting social inequities that exclude individuals and groups of people from participating to their full ability. The syllabus is an entry point for a relationship between students, content, and instructor, providing a guide to action for instructors and students. Any antiracist analysis of the syllabus must consider curricular, pedagogical, and assessment choices to cultivate an antiracist ethic in the classroom. The authors provide questions and examples to raise awareness of the complexity of creating antiracist classrooms.

Our capabilities in space are growing almost as fast as our ambitions. Many nations, companies, and private actors are currently vying to secure historic “firsts” in space, raising complex social and ethical questions. There is surprisingly little serious analysis of these issues, however, and they are rarely discussed in undergraduate class discussions, despite their popularity with students. To help correct this deficit, a student research team designed 11 case studies to help instructors across the curriculum introduce space into their classes. These are designed for ease of use, with self-contained background information, suggested readings/movies, and a series of juicy questions.