Center for Human Values
- CHV 310/PHI 385: Practical EthicsThis course will challenge you to examine your life from an ethical perspective. What should your goals and values be? We are living in a world in which some live in great affluence while others live in extreme poverty. Climate change poses a threat to both present and future generations, as well as to the natural environment. Is it enough to obey conventional moral rules? Other questions to be discussed include: abortion, euthanasia; the claim that all human life has equal value; the moral status of animals; and the ethics of what we eat. Topics of current interest may be added during the semester.
- CHV 385/AAS 385: The Hidden History of Hollywood - Research Film StudioThis course uncovers the roots of racial injustice in Hollywood; the secret, but cardinal role Woodrow Wilson played in the production and distribution of D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation that led directly to the rebirth of the KKK and increased violence against Afro-Americans; and William Monroe Trotter's fight against the propaganda film. Wilson's policy of segregation was adapted by Hollywood as a self-censoring industry regulation of representation. Black people could only appear on screen as subservient and marginal characters, never as equals, partners or leaders. This code, Wilson's legacy, has become second nature to Hollywood.
- CHV 599: Dissertation SeminarThis is a required course for the ten Graduate Prize Fellows (GPFs) in the University Center for Human Values. It is expected that the GPFs register for the course in both the fall and spring semesters of the year they are GPFs. The course has three central goals. First, the seminar is designed to support students' dissertation work while providing special aid to the human values aspect of the dissertation. Second, the seminar has an intensive focus on in-person academic performance skills. Third, the seminar aims to help graduate students to work toward the academic job market.
- CLA 532/CHV 532/COM 588: Translatio: Translating and Adapting Greek and Roman Classics in Theory and PracticeThis course analyzes translations of Greek and Latin texts through the lens of translation and adaptation studies. Starting with the theory and practice of translating ancient Greek authors in Rome, we proceed to consider modern translations and adaptations of ancient Greek and Roman texts and to theorize the activity of translation as a distinctive way of knowing and receiving literature. Individual seminars focus on the translation of Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Catullus, Horace, and Ovid, as well as classical adaptation in contemporary works by Rita Dove, Anne Carson, Ocean Vuong, and Kae Tempest.
- HIS 427/CHV 427: Being Human: A Political HistoryFew political gestures are as ubiquitous or powerful as the appeal to our common "humanity." But a politics based on the human self (or, as it once was, "man") has often been accused of harboring limitations or prejudices that undercut its claim to be universal. More recently, the priority accorded to humans has been brought into question by studies into the cognitive and emotive capabilities of other animals, and developments in computing. In this course, we will examine the emergence of the human self as a master concept of politics, and we will also track the criticisms made by feminists, anti-colonial writers, and animal rights activists.
- PHI 202/CHV 202: Introduction to Moral PhilosophyAn introduction to central topics of moral philosophy. Questions include: What makes an action morally right or wrong, and why? Is the right action the one with the best consequences? Do our intentions matter for the rightness of our actions? Is there a moral difference between killing someone and letting someone die? Is there 'moral luck'? What makes someone's life go best for her? What is the moral status of future persons? Is abortion morally permissible? Is it permissible to kill animals to eat them? Is there a single true morality or is moral truth relative to cultures? Does anything really matter or did we just evolve to think so?
- PHI 315/CHV 315/CGS 315: Philosophy of MindThis course focuses on classical and contemporary problems in the philosophy of mind including the mind-body problem, the problem of consciousness, the problem of introspection and the problem of other minds.
- PHI 411/CHV 411/POL 407: Free Speech in the Internet AgeThis seminar will examine how the global reach and new technologies of the internet change the theory and practice of free speech. Questions we will discuss include: How do philosophical defenses of the right to freedom of expression, developed in the age of the town square and the printing press, apply in the internet age? How should international conflicts over on-line speech be resolved? Is there a universal human right to freedom of expression or are there only culturally specific free speech regimes? How has the internet facilitated new speech-based harms such as cyber-stalking and revenge porn, and how should these harms be addressed?
- PHI 519/CHV 519: Normative Ethics: Humans vs. Animals: Agriculture, Climate Change, and JusticeThis seminar explores recent work in animal ethics with a focus on questions that arise in the context of climate change and agriculture. Questions include: Are familiar views about well-being, rights, population ethics, and distributive justice equally plausible when applied to animals? How should we make tradeoffs between the interests of humans, individual animals, and species? Does responsibility for avoiding collective harms lie with individuals or groups? Can we make progress in animal ethics by using cognitive science? Can we make progress on policy debates by factoring moral uncertainty into our deliberation?
- POL 313/CHV 313: Global JusticeWhat, if any, norms of justice apply to the institutions and practice of world politics? Topics may include "political realism" and skepticism about global morality; just wars and justice in warfare; ethics of humanitarian intervention; the nature and basis of human rights; world poverty and global distributive justice; climate change; democracy and accountability in global institutions. Readings chosen from recent works in political philosophy.
- REL 394/CHV 394: Environmental Ethics and Modern Religious ThoughtThe current ecological crisis is often attributed to the effects of religion, especially Christianity. Focusing primarily on Christian theology and ethics (with some significant attention to Jewish thought as well), this course surveys and critically analyzes the emergence of religious discourses around environmental and animal ethics. The first half of the course considers recent works in "ecotheology." The second half of the course turns to particular ethical topics: climate change, environmental racism, biodiversity conservation, animal welfare, and food.
- SPI 370/POL 308/CHV 301: Ethics and Public PolicyThe course examines major moral controversies in public life and differing conceptions of justice and the common good. It seeks to help students develop the skills required for thinking and writing about the ethical considerations that ought to shape public institutions, guide public authorities, and inform the public's judgments. The course will focus on issues that are particularly challenging for advanced, pluralist democracies such as the USA, including justice in war, terrorism and torture, markets and distributive justice, immigration, refugees, and criminal justice.
- SPI 421/POL 479/CHV 470: Comparative Constitutional LawThis course will introduce students to constitutional government in comparative perspective. In the first half of the course, we will focus on presidential v. parliamentary systems, separation of powers, "fourth branch" institutions and the influence of transnational institutions. In the second half, we will focus on rights and the way that they are interpreted by courts. We will trace the emergence (and decline) of a global constitutional culture and discuss the constitutions of South Africa, India, Germany, France, Hungary, Colombia and Canada with side references to the U.S.