POL2026H1Y L0101
Topics in Political Thought I
Seminar on Ethics
Themes
This seminar will expose senior undergraduates and graduate students to cutting edge research in the field of ethics, broadly understood. Students will attend 8 presentations in the Centre for Ethics speaker series, given by eminent scholars from outside the University, working in the field of moral and political philosophy as well as policy and law. Students will meet with the professor the following day to discuss these presentations. This year’s topics include aboriginal approaches to legal reasoning, secularism and religious diversity, the morality of cost benefit analysis, Hannah Arendt on ownership and the ethical dimensions of white collar crime.
Texts
Two academic papers per seminar talk assigned by the speaker, to be read in advance and available on Blackboard.
Format and Requirements
Attendance: 10%
Students must attend all seminar talks
Short writing assignment: 2x20%
Over the course of the year, students must submit word 1500-word assignments, each providing a summary and analysis of one seminar. At least one of the two must be submitted by Jan. 21st, 2014.
Final term paper: 50%