Proposal to Add Course

Proposal to Add Course Course Number and Title: PHIL151 Ethical Theory & Practice Description: This course introduces the basic concepts and principles of ethical reasoning as applied to the widest variety of practical circumstances and contexts. Students will learn to recognize ethical and moral problems, to respond to them reasonably, and to think about their own and others' ethical perspectives and values. Restrictions and Prerequisites: none Credits: 3.0 Rationale for creating this course: 1. The creation of PHIL151 Ethical Theory & Practice addresses two important objectives. First, it is widely recognized that students in all majors benefit from reflecting upon ethical issues and developing skills associated with ethical reasoning while in college. There are few professions or fields of research that students may graduate into in which the ability to understand and respond reasonably to the ethical dimensions of conduct are not regarded as essential. The Ethical Reasoning Drexel Student Learning Priority reflects this idea directly, indicating that by the time they graduate, all Drexel students will be able to, assess their own ethical values and the social context of ethical problems, recognize ethical issues in a variety of settings, think about how different ethical perspectives might be applied to an ethical problem, and consider the consequences of alternative actions. 1 A new, introductory-level foundational class would serve the aims associated with this learning priority better than any of our existing courses can, encouraging undergraduate students to regard as an important and enduring aspect of their everyday lives as persons, workers, and citizens that is not bound to and does not stem from their career choices or specialized professional endeavors. Such a course would not be geared to the codes of conduct and professional expectations of any one field of research or career choice. Nor would it presuppose an interest or facility in reading primary or technical texts from the discipline of Philosophy. The hope is that by selecting non-technical non-primary texts and presenting them in the appropriate manner, the class will make the point implied in the DSLP that is neither a professional requirement tacked on to career-oriented training nor the preserve of philosophical experts decoding esoteric texts. is everywhere in life where our concerns bring the lives, fortunes, feelings, and aspirations of others into relation with our own. Although relatively few programs currently require their students take any courses, some require our existing general course, PHIL251, or include it as an option to fulfill a Humanities or other requirement. Eight programs currently require PHIL251 : 1. Biological Sciences BS, 2. Education-Biology BS, 3. Education-Chemistry BS, 4. Education-Environmental Education BS, 5. Education-Earth and Space Science BS, 6. Education-General Science BS, 1

7. Education-Mathematics BS, 8. Education-Physics BS. The following five programs do not require PHIL251 but include it as an option to fulfill a requirement in or Humanities: 1. Nursing BSN, 2. English BA, 3. Medical Humanities Certificate, 4. Environmental Science BS, 5. Geoscience BS. The number of students taking PHIL251 has grown steadily over the last five years, increasing by almost 50% from 2009-2013, (see chart #1 below). Philosophy currently offers 4-5 sections of this class each fall, winter, and spring term and 2-3 sections each summer, including some sections restricted to the Pennoni Honors College and Burlington Community College. The proposed new course would improve our ability to offer a foundational course in designed for programs outside Philosophy because PHIL251, the existing course best designed for this service also serves our Philosophy majors and minors as their only required general course. In this latter role, the class regularly features some relatively advanced technical work in primary texts from the history of Philosophy. At present, PHIL251 is the only course we have serving the Ethical Reasoning Student Learning Priority and our only course designed to meet the more technical, disciplinary needs of Philosophy students in. As a result, PHIL251 is harder to teach effectively to both audiences than it should be. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some student outcomes are affected by the perception of confusion regarding the aims and purposes of the class, and their appropriateness. 2 Creating PHIL151 will allow us to re-orient PHIL251 toward a more advanced (200-level) study of for Philosophy students. PHIL151 would offer a focused, foundational ethics course assuming no prior exposure to or training in Philosophy and without requiring students to read any primary source texts. PHIL251 would then offer a significant step deeper into the traditional philosophical issues, technical questions, and conceptual distinctions of importance in the discipline, understanding these to be foundational toward further work in Philosophy but not essential to the Drexel Student Learning Priority or to study in other fields. PHIL251 would not be closed to non-majors, but in fact would be a natural next step for students who become excited about the ideas and problems they come to recognize in PHIL151. PHIL151 would strive to present as a function of anyone s life and in this sense could spur some students to curiosity about how it has been studied as an object of philosophical scrutiny in the more formal and disciplinary way (as in PHIL251). If PHIL151 were to become widely or perhaps universally required for Drexel students, it could become a great new source through which to recruit new majors and minors by attracting them to PHIL251 on the basis of their exposure to more general and less technical philosophical problems in the earlier class. 2

2. The second objective sought in establishing PHIL151 is to provide the foundational course that will make the various Applied and Professional courses students often are required to take as a function of their major programs to truly succeed in a way the often do not now. Without a foundation or context that allows instructors to situate learning in Applied and Professional courses, the goals teachers can accomplish in ten weeks are often limited to familiarizing students with the conduct and code considerations that are specifically connected with their careers or fields of study. There are numerous courses offered at Drexel in separate programs and schools in Applied and Professional areas such as, for example, HSAD210 Health-Care, BMES338 Biomedical and Law, TVIE285 Media Law and, PBHL309 Public Health, etc. None of these courses offers a general foundational introduction to ethical reasoning, which would be a lot to expect them to provide, given their primary tasks associated with professional practices, associational expectations, and codes of conduct and statutory obligations related to research and work in particular areas. Many of these courses are not even taught by ethicists, but by professional practitioners who know how things work in their fields but who may have little or no actual training in. The study of Applied and Professional is an important part of an undergraduate major s entrance into and understanding of the complexities and lore of his or her field. However, without a more general context of ethical study and reflection that provides a framework within which the Applied and Professional study fits, the latter can easily come off as merely an addendum to their practical training, a function of career-development and professional preparation. If students leave Drexel thinking this is all is and if they are incapable of understanding or reflecting upon more generally as a function of their personal and social lives, we will have failed to accomplish some of our aims. But whether Applied and Professional courses are taught by practitioners or by actual ethicists, such classes take for granted a foundation upon which ethical reasoning about any particular set problems can become a grounded competence and not merely one among the various sets of rules and do s and don ts that adhere to the student s hopes for success in his or her field. It is essential that students in all majors have some contact with the so-called professional conduct and code issues in their fields. But if this is all they receive by way of instruction about, they cannot be blamed for concluding that is merely a function of career training that varies from field to field, rather than a fundamental condition of their personal, social, political, and community lives. They can t be blamed for hearing the message communicated when is presented as so simple and straightforward an area of experience that it need not receive careful, sustained, focused study outside the context of a particular profession or area of endeavor. Requiring students to take PHIL151 will help to provide them with the kind of early foundational learning that will support their understanding of the more concrete and particular issues they will encounter later on in Applied and Professional courses and as a function of their specific professional training. When they learn about the important legal, professional, and associational obligations associated with their major fields they will be able to understand and deal with them within a firmly established, well-developed, and thoughtfully articulated context that extends beyond the particular issues in many important ways. 3

Chart #1: Enrollments in PHIL251 from 2009 to 2013: Sections of Sections of Sections of Academic Year PHIL251: PHIL251: PHIL251: FALL WINTER SPRING Sections of PHIL251: SUMMER TOTAL for YEAR: 2009: 2 4 2 3 11 2010: 3 5 2 2 12 2011: 4 4 4 2 14 2012: 4 5 5 0 14 2013: 4 6 4* 3* 17* *currently scheduled Chart #2: Existing and Planned Applied and Professional courses, Philosophy Program: Description, Prerequisites and Other Programs Listing Course as Course, Status Restrictions Requirement or Optional Requirement Study of such moral issues as truthtelling, puffery, and lying in business Construction Management BS Business and Engineering BS communications; employer-employee Construction Management-Real Estate 1. PHIL301 Business relations; obligations to customers; obligations to foreign populations; and Social Responsibility in Business CERT government contracts. Freshman International Area Studies BA excluded. Music Industry BS 2. In development: PHIL303 and the Legal Professions 3. PHIL305 Communication Ethical analysis of current laws and legislation aimed at regulating speech in the context of mass communications (radio, television and film). Freshman excluded. 4. In development: PHIL310 and Technology 5. PHIL311 Computer 6. PHIL315 Engineering Ethical analyses of current laws and pending legislation aimed at regulating computer use as well as Internet practices and content. Freshman excluded. Provides critical reflection on the nature of engineering and technology and on the ethical obligations and responsibilities unique to the engineering profession. Topics include the social responsibilities of engineering, the nature of professionalism, professional autonomy, whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, organizational (dis)obedience, the ethics of risk assessment, and the place and purpose of engineering codes of ethics. Freshman and Communication-Corporate & Public Relations BA Communication-Corporate and Public Relations BS Communication-Global Journalism BA Communication-Technical & Science Communication BS Minor in Writing English BA Environmental Studies BS Global Engineering Minor International Area Studies BA International Area Studies Minor Informatics BS Business and Engineering BS Computer Engineering BS Chemical Engineering BS Electrical Engineering BS English BA Environmental Engineering BS Engineering Technology: Biomedical Engineering Technology: Electrical Engineering Technology: Mechanical Engineering Technology: Industrial 4

7. PHIL317 in Design Professions Sophomores excluded; College of Business Students and College of Engineering students only; Business Administration Majors and Economics Majors excluded. Examines ethical theories and their application to architecture; the ethics of architectural space and place; the logic of ethical reasoning applied to the practice of architecture; professional ethics and the social responsibility of architects; the ethics of safety and risk in the production of architectural structures; sustainable environmental architectural design. Architecture Majors and Interior Design Majors only. 8. In development: PHIL320 Neuroscience 9. PHIL321 Biomedical 10. PHIL322 of Human Enhancement 11. PHIL323 Organizational 12. PHIL325 in Sports Management Studies moral issues related to health and disease, patients' rights and professional responsibilities, informed consent, abortion, euthanasia, and biomedical research. Freshman excluded. Discussion of developments in healthcare with the potential not only to treat disease, but also to improve human performance and cosmetically change the human body, thereby creating ethical considerations about the nature of health and disease and the proper scope and goals of health care. Freshman excluded. Prerequisite HSAD 210 or PHIL251 This course focuses on the application of ethical theories and principles to organizational systems and decisionmaking. Emphasis will be placed on how ethical principles affect and are applied to organizational policymaking, leadership behavior, systems of communication, technology use, and other systems of organization. Freshmen, Sophomores excluded. An introduction to various ethical issues in sports and sports management, such as leadership and coaching; gender and racial equity in sports; fair play and cheating; violence and competition; commercialization of sports; the relation of sports to Engineering Materials Science and Engineering BS Architecture 2 + 4 Option BA Architecture Part-time Evening Option BA Medical Humanities Certificate General Studies-Physical Science International Area Studies BA Nursing BS Public Health BS Public Health Minor None. Communications and Applied Technology BS Property Management BS Professional Studies BS Sport Management BS 5

13. PHIL330 Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice 14. PHIL335 Global Ethical Issues cultural value systems; ethics of technology and sports performance. Freshmen Sophomores excluded. Studies ethical issues in the policies and practices of criminal justice, and theories that bear upon issues such as the relationship of law to justice, the definition of crime, the use of deception and coercion in law enforcement, and the purposes and varieties of criminal punishment. Freshman excluded. Offers an introduction to the ethical tensions of our age, globally construed. May address such issues as terrorism, genocide, religious exclusivism, nuclear proliferation, the regulation of the Internet, as well as culturally competing notions of right and wrong, and good and bad. Freshman excluded. 15. Currently proposed: PHIL340 Environmental Criminal Justice BS Crime, Justice & Social Policy BS English BA Environmental Studies BS Global Engineering Minor International Area Studies BS International Area Studies Minor Informatics BS -------------------------------------------------------- 1 Drexel Student Learning Priorities, Ethical Reasoning, Drexel Office of the Provost website, http://www.drexel.edu/provost/learningpriorities/ Accessed Nov. 3, 2013. 2 Anecdotally, I have seen in some students evaluations puzzlement about why they would be required to read Aristotle or Kant in the class. Also, having seen a number of syllabi for PHIL251 from various instructors, the course seems to be aimed at a continuum of audiences. 6