HRS 318: Sources and Methods: Animals, Persons, and Ethics

 

Prof. Stephens           Spring 2009        Mon. Wed. 3:00 – 4:15 pm           Humanities Center (Dowling Hall) 212

 

office hours: MWF 1010:20 am and 12 noon12:15 pm, MW 4:204:45 pm, and by appointment

 

office: HC 116           phone (with voicemail): 280-2632       email: stphns at creighton dot edu

 

Description

 

This Honors Program (and CCAS Certified Writing) course will use philosophical methods to study the nature of animals, the nature of persons, and the ethical dynamics between persons and animals.  What makes a being a person?  Are all human beings persons or only some?  Are there any nonhuman persons?  Are androids, Blade Runner Replicants, computers, or divine beings persons?  Are some nonhuman animals persons?  Are dolphins, whales, or great apes persons?  What philosophical methods can be used to constructing defensible answers to these questions?  What obligations do morally responsible agents have to persons, to sentient rudimentary persons, and to living non-persons?  How do myths, folklore, biology, the theory of evolution, and the science of ethology inform our thinking about such questions?  We will draw from various philosophical texts in order to examine the fascinating and complex ethical, social, and metaphysical relationships between persons and animals.

 

Course Objectives

Students will learn how...

 

Required Texts

 

Required .pdf Essays

Required Film

Recommended Texts

 

Optional Texts (labeled suggested in CU Bookstore)

 

Other Texts

 

Websites

Course Requirements (and percentage of course grade)

 

One Paper (1600 words minimum; suggested max. 1900 words) 25%
Two Exam 20% + 20%
Final Exam 20%
Class Participation (includes pop reading quizlets) 15%

     

Attendance Policy

 

Regular and punctual class attendance is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a good class participation grade.  Absences totaling the equivalent of three (3) weeks of class meetings will result in an AF (failure due to excessive absence) for this course.  Each absence fewer than three weeks will incrementally lower the student’s class participation grade.  Students are responsible for all material discussed and all announcements made in every class.  If a student misses a class, it is her responsibility to find out what she missed.  Being tardy twice counts as one absence. 

 

Academic Honesty and Penalties for Violations

Students who plagiarize any part of a paper or written assignment will receive an F (zero) for that assignment. Students who cheat on an assignment will receive an F (zero) on that assignment.  Students are required to produce their own original work in their papers and assignments, including all ideas, arguments, and sentences.  Students may not take ideas or sentences from another unless that source is properly cited.  Students may NOT work with others when writing the sentences of their assignments.  However, students are encouraged to discuss ideas pertaining to their papers with other students in the course and with other people not taking the course.  Citations on the paper should follow the guidelines in How to Write Philosophy Papers.  In a case of plagiarism or cheating judged by the instructor to be flagrant, the student will receive an F for the course.  See the Creighton College of Arts & Sciences Academic Honesty Procedures.

Paper Requirements

Click on this link for details about selecting your PAPER TOPICA hard copy of the paper must be delivered under Prof. Stephens' office door (HC 116) or put in his hand in order to count as being received.  Emailed papers are not acceptable.  Late papers will be penalized ten (10) points per day late.  Print your NAME, the COURSE number and name, the name of your PROFESSOR, the TITLE of your paper, and the WORD COUNT on the cover page.  Your paper will be a THESIS DEFENSE paper, also known as an argumentative essay.  See chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 in Vaughn, Writing Philosophy or (perhaps and) Stephens, How to Write Philosophy Papers.

Pop Quizlets

Ordinarily pop quizlets cannot be taken later if missed.  Quizlets usually contain about ten questions.  I will drop your lowest quizlet score when calculating your final Class Participation grade.

Class Cancellation Procedures

 

Ordinarily, the instructor will notify students of a cancelled class via email or on the web-syllabus or both.  Students are expected to confirm that a class is cancelled by at least one of three means: (1) telephone call to the instructor’s office phone; (2) telephone call to the Philosophy Department Administrative Assistant, Mrs. Peggy Troy; (3) first-hand, eye witness observation of a credible class cancellation sign printed on Creighton University Philosophy Department stationery, and signed either by the instructor or by Mrs. Peggy Troy, posted inside the classroom.  Word of mouth does not justify a students belief that a class is cancelled.

 

Standards of Evaluation for Letter Grades

F    “Failure – no credit” (<60% average)

D    “Work of inferior quality, but passing” (60 to <70% average)

C    “Satisfactory work”

B    “Noteworthy level of performance”    Demonstrates all of the qualities of satisfactory work plus:

A    “Outstanding achievement and an unusual degree of intellectual initiative”  Demonstrates all of the qualities of noteworthy performance plus:

Oral Class Participation

Punctuality is a virtue.  Prof. Stephens strives to attend every class on time.  He expects all of his students to attend every class, on time, every week, all semester long.  Being in class is a NECESSARY but not a sufficient condition for earning a good class participation grade.  Six (6) or more absences will result in an AF (failure due to excessive absence) for this course.  Each absence fewer than six will incrementally lower your class participation grade.  You are responsible for all material discussed and all announcements made in every class.  If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed.  Being tardy twice counts as one absence.  Class begins when Prof. Stephens enters the room or at 3:00 pm, whichever comes second, so if you arrive after that, then you are tardy.  Participation means raising your hand to be called on and making comments about the reading or the discussion, or asking questions about the reading or the lecture, or responding to questions Prof. Stephens raises or comments made by other students.  Attentively listening to everything said in class is certainly expected.  But it is virtually impossible to learn how to do philosophy by merely listening.  Listening alone does not count in the least as oral participation.  You must vocalize your questions, thoughts, and comments out loud in class.  Both quality and quantity of oral remarks count; both are recorded for every class.  Since we will be closely attending to the readings in our class discussions, it is vital that everyday you bring to class your book (or a printed copy of the essay or essays) containing that days reading assignment.

Schedule

 

Jan. 14 Introduction to philosophical methods; Pre-test
   
   I. Animals
   
Jan. 19 Shepard, Introduction and Part I: The Animal Fare, Chapters 1 – 2 (3–40)         VOCABULARY in Shepard, The Others
   
Jan. 21 Shepard, Part II: Cognition, Chapters 3 – 4 (43–68)
   
Jan. 26 Shepard, Part III: Identity, Chapters 5 – 8 (71–114)
   
Jan. 28 Shepard, Part IV: Change, Chapters 9 – 11 (117–152)
   
Feb. 2 Shepard, Chapters 12 – 13 (153–172); “Cat cuisine embroils China shops in protests,” The Boston Globe, Jan 2, 2009;
  Timothy Treadwell the Grizzly Man (wikipedia.com); Knut the polar bear (wikipedia.com)
   
Feb. 4 Shepard, Part V: The Cosmos, Chapters 14 – 15 (175–204)
   
Feb. 9 Shepard, Chapters 16 – 17 (205–242); Mark Bittman, Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler,The New York Times, January 27, 2008
   
Feb. 11 Shepard, Chapter 18: Hounding Nature: The Nightmares of Domestication (243–267)
   
Feb. 16 Shepard, Part VI: Counterplayers, Chapters 19 – 22 (271–303)
   
Feb. 18 Shepard, Chapters 23 – 24 (304–333); Take-home Part of Exam #1 distributed in class DUE Fri. Feb. 20 at 3:00 pm   Review for Exam #1
   
Feb. 23 In-class Part of Exam #1
   
   II. Persons
   
Feb. 25 Stephens, Ch. 3: Cicero, Ch. 6: Boethius (17–21, 32–37)
   
March 2 Stephens, Ch. 6: Boethius continued (reread 32–37)
   
March 4 Stephens, Ch. 23: C. D. Broad, “The Validity of Belief in a Personal God” (187–198)
   
   SPRING RECESS
   
March 16 Stephens, Ch. 23: C. D. Broad, “The Validity of Belief in a Personal God” continued (reread 187–198)
   
March 18  Stephens, Ch. 36: A. O. Rorty, “Persons and Personae” (336–350)
   
March 23 Stephens, Ch. 42: The Boyd Group, “The Moral Status of Non-human Primates: Are Apes Persons?” (409–415),
  Nicholas Wade, “Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior,” and Mark Jenkins, “Virunga Gorillas
   
March 25 Stephens, Ch. 39: Oswald Hanfling, “Machines as Persons?” (379–386), RECOMMENDED: Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
  watch Blade Runner before class March 30 (the film is on reserve in Reinert Library)
  view Dr Bucher’s Powerpoint lecture (in three parts) “Style and Meaning in Blade Runner” on BlueLine for this course (under “Lessons”)
   
  Hampton Fancher & David Peoples, Blade Runner Screenplay (Feb. 23, 1981)
March 30 Stephen Mulhall, “Picturing the Human (Body and Soul): A Reading of Blade Runner
   
April 1 Whitehead et al., “Culture and Conservation of Non-humans with Reference to Whales and Dolphins,” M. P. Simmonds, “Into the Brains of Whales,”
  Helen Fields, “An Appetite for Whaling
   
April 6 Stephens, Ch. 34: Mary Midgley, “Persons and Non-Persons” (313–320), Paola Cavalieri, “Whales as Persons”      Review for Exam #2
   
April 8 Exam #2
   
  EASTER RECESS
   
   III. Virtues, Vices, Ethics, and Animals
   
April 15 S. F. Sapontzis, “Saving the Rabbit from the Fox”           Group Alpha Papers DUE
   
April 20 David Foster Wallace, “Consider the LobsterGourmet, August 2004; W. O. Stephens, “Five Arguments for Vegetarianism”;
  Lobsters and crabs feel pain, study shows” msnbc.com 3/27/2009; “Crabs feel and remember pain suggests new study” cnn.com 3/27/2009
   
April 22 HONORS DAY, 2:00 to 5:00 pm in the Harper Center – no class meeting      Group Beta Papers DUE
   
April 27 Rosalind Hursthouse, “Applying Virtue Ethics to Our Treatment of the Other Animals,” Tom Regan, “The Case for Animal Rights” [abridged], and
  Peter Singer, “Practical Ethics” [abridged]
   
April 29 last class; K. J. Shapiro, “Human-Animal Studies: Growing the Field, Applying the Field,” and James Vlahos, “Pill-popping Pets
  Group Gamma Papers DUE
                                                                                                        Review for Final Exam
May 6 1:00–2:40 pm    Final Exam

           

The Meatrix I, The Meatrix II, The Meatrix II½

 

* The instructor reserves the right, at his discretion and as needed, to make minor changes to this syllabus during the course of the semester (and the semester of the course) including due dates, assignments, and requirements. *

 

last modified 31 July 2009
Copyright © 2009 William O. Stephens