Teaching Ethics with Three Philosophical Novels

Teaching Ethics with Three Philosophical Novels

Michael Boylan Teaching Ethics with Three Philosophical Novels

Michael Boylan Department of Philosophy Marymount University Arlington, VA, USA ISBN 978-3-319-55710-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55711-3 ISBN 978-3-319-55711-3 (ebook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2017943108 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Contents Part I A Very Short Textbook on Ethics with Primary Readings 1 First Order Metaethical Principles: Boylan s Philosophical Work on Ethics and Personhood Theory... 3 Introduction... 3 Boylan s First-Order Metaethical Principles... 5 The Personal Worldview Imperative... 6 The Shared Community Worldview Imperatives... 9 The Argument for the Moral Status of Basic Goods... 13 The Table of Embeddedness... 15 Conclusion of the First-Order Metaethical Principles... 17 2 Virtue Ethics with Selections from Aristotle s Nicomachean Ethics... 19 3 Utilitarianism... 45 What Utilitarianism Is... 46 4 Deontology... 63 Part One: A Discussion of the Nature and Types of Imperatives... 64 Part Two: The Nature of the Categorical Imperative... 66 Part Three: The Human Person as an End-in-Herself... 70 Part Four: Humanity and Autonomy... 73 Part II The Novels 5 Rainbow Curve... 79 6 To the Promised Land... 319 7 Naked Reverse... 499 Appendix: Sample Syllabus for a Philosophical Ethics Course... 729 Sample Assignment Rubric... 731 A Philosophical Response to Fiction... 731 v

Introduction: Using Fiction to Teach Philosophical Ethics Why should we use fiction to teach philosophical ethics? The reason begins as we set out what we mean by teaching philosophical ethics. The core of philosophical ethics is the normative theories that prescribe what we are to do when an issue of right or wrong occurs in our lives. There is a large sorting device between the normative theories: realist v. anti-realist. The realist theories suggest that there are moral facts that are true or false. If these facts are discovered within the natural world, then they are also described as naturalist. The three principal theories set out in this book virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology are all realist- naturalist. If the realist theories are not found in the natural world, i.e., a supernatural domain, then they are non-natural theories; G.E. Moore was an example of this as an agathistic utilitarian. The anti-realist theories will be described only briefly in this text. These theories set out that morality is conventional so that there are no moral facts in the world. The most popular anti-real ethical theories are ethical contractarianism, ethical intuitionism, and ethical noncognitivism. These theories are best captured by short narratives and cases so that they are only briefly described in the first-order metaethical section of the book. Around the core concerns of normative ethics are, on the theoretical side, firstand second-order metaethics and, on the practical side, applied ethics (putting ethics into action in daily life). This text will examine this author s work in first-order metaethics but will demur on presenting second-order metaethics for the same reason that there is scant attention to the anti-realistic ethical theories: they tend to be too far away from applied ethics. The real forte of this book is its emphasis upon applied ethics through three extended narratives that explore detailed accounts that are much more life-like than short cases or thought experiments. This is because of the extensive detail presented in the novel. When the reader suspends disbelief and enters the world of the novel, she is confronted with the sort of complexity that we all encounter in our own lives. It is for this reason that novels help us all engage principles of normative theories in their naturalistic richness. What students need to do when confronting a novel in their philosophical studies is first to get the principal parts down. I suggest that instructors have students complete critical summary sheets for each class for which the novel is being presented. I suggest that these two-page sheets look like the following (Fig. 1): vii

viii Introduction: Using Fiction to Teach Philosophical Ethics Name of Novel: Principal Characters (within the pages assigned): Plot (within the pages assigned): Themes (points of contention set out by the author often with solutions): Assessment (use philosophical principles from the normative theories to drive home this part) Fig. 1 The structure of the critical summary sheet (For readers who would like to see examples of a critical summary sheet, go to michaelboylan.net (blog section)) The critical summary sheet does several things: (1) It ensures that the student has read the required number of pages, (2) it requires the student to set out critical factual details within the page numbers required, and (3) it requires the student to make (at least provisional) judgments about the pages that she has read. These three points will allow the student to be more well-informed for class discussion. In my teaching I often use active teaching methods that require small student teams to use their student summary sheets to present back to the class to stimulate student-led discussion. By putting the students on the line, they are often forced to engage with the text at a higher level. Modern instructional devices like computerdriven PowerPoint and animations can further enhance the classroom presentation. In the end the goal is for the student to integrate his experience with the primary texts presented in the first part of the course (covering the three favored normative theories) into his critical appraisal of the way either a particular scene resolves its situation or a recurring theme/motif is applied to various scenes within the novel. On the upside, students who are exposed to narrative within the philosophy classroom find that their self-reported experience of the class is greatly enhanced. 1 This text will continue along this documented pedagogical path. 1 This assertion has been empirically demonstrated in a survey of 5 colleges and over 1000 students in Using Fictive Narrative to Teach Ethics/Philosophy Michael Boylan, co-authored with Felicia Nimue Ackerman, Sybol Cook Anderson, Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, and Edward Spence. Teaching Ethics 12.1 (fall 2011): 1 34.