Course Syllabus

Welcome to Y379, Ethics and Public Policy!

 

We are very happy you are here, and look forward to a terrific semester together.

This page is the primary page we will use for the class. It will include links to the syllabus, readings, and assignments. We will also use it for general announcements. Please check frequently!

 

NOTA BENE: All class correspondence (email) will be through Canvas's messaging program. Please use Canvas messages to contact us, and do not try to reach us via our regular campus email.   PLEASE ADDRESS ALL CLASS CORRESPONDENCE TO ALL INTRUCTORS/TEACHERS ROLE.

 

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Important business for the beginning of the semester. 

1) Please take this getting-to-know-you quiz. We are eager to learn more about you!

 

Click here to complete our "quiz" for Getting to Know You!

 

2) Please sign up for group work. New or changed group members will be assigned to group 12.

 

3) PLEASE volunteer to share your lecture notes with a classmate who could not attend one (or max of two) lectures.

 

If you are willing to share your notes with a classmate who had to miss one or two (max.!) lectures, please reply to this discussion post by adding your name. That way, your colleagues will know you are willing to help them catch up if they could not come to class.  Here's the link: Share Lecture Notes?

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Your Teaching Team:

• Eunah Hong: Mon 1-2 pm, Woodburn 330
• Junyoung Kim: Thu 1-2 pm, Woodburn 332

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Syllabus Link:  Syllabus (as of 8/17)

 

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OVERVIEW OF COURSE SCHEDULE

 

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If you need to change your group membership, please let us know ASAP and we will move you to group 12.

 

Additional Members of Group 12: Abdallah Al Samaraee

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Guidelines on writing the 5-page essays: How to Write Papers for Ethics and Public Policy  Grading Rubric Sample outlines for writing a theory-to-case or case-to-theory essay. SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY HERE

 

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Readings: 

We have highlighted headers for both required readings and required case studies

 

Readings on MEANS: The problem of dirty hands

• Walzer -- "Dirty Hands"

Recommended

• • • J Thomson, "The Trolley Problem"
    • D Thompson, "Democratic Dirty Hands"
    • Dovi, Guilt and the Problem of Dirty Hands -- excerpt on why guilt shows commitment to two ethics
  •  
    • "The Good Place," Presentation of the Trolley Car Problem:

 

• • • Illustration of the Trolley Problem:

Case

• • • Jim and the Villagers
    • The Trolley Problem (in Thomson's article and illustrated in video from The Good Place

Just for Fun

• • • Little Kid Tackles the Trolley Problem (NB: This is a new link that works)

 

Readings on MEANS: Violence

• Walzer, Just and Unjust War
  • Chapter Eight
  • Chapter Nine (esp. pp. 138-147, 151-159)

Recommended

• • • Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, Chapter Sixteen

Cases

• • • McCullough, Truman (excerpt)
    • Stimson, "Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb"

 

Readings on MEANS: Deception

• Bok, Lying (excerpts)
• Bellamy, "Lies, Deception, and Democracy"

Recommended

• • • Bok, Lying, Appendix.pdf 
    • follow this link to clip of Col. North testifying before Congress: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/this-is-a-dangerous-world-oliver-north-testifies-before-congress/2018/05/07/91e57d30-5249-11e8-a6d4-ca1d035642ce_video.html

Case

• • • "Iran-Contra Affair"

 

 

Readings on MEANS: Manipulation

• Dworkin, "Theory and Practice of Autonomy"
• Feinberg on what vitiates consent
• Atiyah, "Promises, Morals and Law"

Recommended

• • • Feinberg, "Failures of Consent"
    • Gilbert, "The Wrong of Wrongful Manipulation" (esp. pages 333, 365-372)
    • Noggle, "Manipulation in Politics"

Case

• • • D. Thompson, "Denver Income Maintenance Experiment"

 

STUDY GUIDE FOR TEST ONE:  Click on this link for Test One STUDY GUIDE

 

Readings on CONTROVERSIAL ENDS: Paternalism and Public Education

• Mill, On Liberty, Chapter 5
• Gutmann, Democratic Education (excerpts)
• Stolzenberg, "He Drew a Circle that Shut Me Out" (Do NOT focus on the legal arguments)

Case Material

• • • "Controversial Curriculum"
    • Mozert v Hawkins
    • DESCRITION ONLY of the (story of the) case in Stolzenberg. Do NOT focus on the legal arguments!

 

 

Readings on CONTROVERSIAL ENDS: Paternalism and Gender

• Mill On Liberty -- Chapter 1
• Mill On Liberty -- Chapter 4
• Brief Statement on Transgenderism, National Catholic Bioethics Center
• Ethics and Public Policy Center on philosophical errors about "transgenderism"

The Science

• • • Skrmetti -- American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical societies explain the science in an Amicus Brief 
    • Orentlicher, "Puberty Blockers Were Safe until Indiana Legislators and Governor Said Otherwise"

Case Material 

• • • JW v Skrmetti -- description of the facts of the case and problem (not the legal arguments) per JW and family
    • JW v Skrmetti -- Tennessee's description of the facts of case and problem (not legal arguments)

Recommended

More Theory

• • • • • Mill, On Liberty -- Chapter 5

More Science

• • • • • Boerner, "What the Science on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids Really Shows"
        • Zevin and Eugster, "Central Precocious Puberty: A Review of Diagnosis, Treatment, and Outcomes"

Personal Memoir

• • • • • Excerpts from Abby Chava Stein, Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman

 

Readings on CONTROVERSIAL ENDS: Paternalism and Protecting the Vulnerable

• Zammiello, "Don't You Know That Your Law Is Toxic -- Britney Spears and Abusive Guardianship"
• Cantarero, "The Ethics of Civil Commitment"

Cases

• • Farrow and Tolentino, "Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare"  
  • Failer, "The Civil Commitment of Joyce Brown

 

Readings on CONTROVERSIAL ENDS: Paternalism and Sex

• Mackinnon selection on the nature of the harms of pornography

Case:

• • A Web of Abuse : Andrew Tate and Webcam Pornography

 

TEST TWO: Paternalism
Link to STUDY GUIDE --> -->	[will be posted here]

 

 

Readings on COMPETING ENDS: Cost-Benefit Analysis

• Smart and Williams, "Utilitarianism: For and Against"
• Leonard and Zeckhauser, "Cost-Benefit Analysis Applied to Risks"
• Anderson, "Values Risks and Market Norms"

Recommended:

• • • Rosenwald After 9-11, Kenneth Feinberg was asked to do the unthinkable -- assign a value to each life lost that day 
    • Kymlicka, "Utilitarianism"
      

Case

• • • Scott, "Risks of ASARCO"
    • ALTERNATIVE copy of case study that includes maps! Alas, page numbers will not correspond:
      • "Managing Environmental Risk: The Case of ASARCO"

 

 

Readings on COMPETING ENDS: Liberty and Life

• Thomson, "A Defense of Abortion"
• Lee and George, "The Wrong of Abortion"

Case Material (to be updated)

Current state of the law	"Tracking the States Where Abortion Is Now Banned"  Sepper et al., "After Roe: Criminal Abortion Bans in Texas"
Abortion pills	Where Restrictions on Abortion Pills Could Matter Most in the US
Heartbeat laws	EXPLAINER -- Abortion landscape under state ‘heartbeat’ laws
Rape exceptions	"Most Abortion Bans Include Exceptions -- In Practice, Few Are Granted" "For One Rape Survivor, New Abortion Bans Bring Back Old, Painful Memories "Why Many Republicans Now Oppose Abortion Exceptions for Rape"
Some women's stories	"'It's Your Problem, Not Mine' -- Hoosiers Share Why They Had Abortions after Roe Reversed"

 

 

In case you are interested in more perspectives on personal/political engagement on the abortion issue

• • • "The Janes." This full-length documentary is about a group of women who tried to help other women procure illegal abortions in the years leading up to the Roe v. Wade decision. To watch, follow the link to IUCAT's listing, login for IU Bloomington, and you should be able to see it.
      • Access to "The Janes"
    • "Battleground." This documentary follows three pro-life women and provides terrific insight into the politics of standing up for life. Here's a link to the library's listing. To watch, follow the link to IUCAT's listing, login for IU Bloomington, and you should be able to see it.
      • Access to "Battleground"

 

 

Readings on COMPETING ENDS: Equality and Antidiscrimination

• Walzer, "Spheres of Justice (excerpts)
• Thomson, Preferential Hiring"
• Myers, "The Case for Color-Blindness"

Recommended

• • • US Department of the Treasury, "Racial Inequality in the United States"
    • Sandel, "Great Before Good"
    • Crusto, "A Plea for Affirmative Action" (this is a short article from the Harvard Law Forum)
    • Sandel, "How Meritocracy Fuels Inequality" 
    • Harlan, J, Plessy v. Furguson dissent (excerpts)
    • Sunstein, The Anticaste Principle

Cases

• • • Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard
      • Harvard's Admissions Process
      • Harvard's discrimination against Asian-Americans
    • Race-conscious admissions at West Point (and other US Military academies)

 

Readings on the RESPONSIBILITY of POLICY MAKERS: Who Is to Blame?

• Ladd, "Morality and the Ideal of Rationality"
• Dworkin, "Community Personified"
• D. Thompson, "Moral Responsibility of Many Hands"

Recommended

• • • Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (excerpts)

Cases

• • • "The Space Shuttle Challenger"
    • Flint Water Crisis

 

Readings on the RESPONSIBILITY of POLICY MAKERS: Political Obligation to (Dis)obey

• Rawls, "Arguments for the Principle of Fairness"
• R. Dworkin,  "Civil Disobedience"
• Weisband and Franck, "Resignation in Protest"
  • Part One
  • Part Two

Cases

• • • • "Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers"
      • "The Odd Couple"

 

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Link to Study Guide for Final Exam: Will be posted here