Foundation Unit: How Do We Determine the Right Thing to Do?
How do we determine the right thing to do? Because we live in societies, many of our personal decisions affect others. Philosophers in the field of ethics have long attempted to craft frameworks for thinking about how to make those decisions ethically. In this unit, we will explore the concept of ethical decision making. As a class, we begin by examining some ethical approaches, such as utilitarianism and rights, through analyzing traditional texts and interactive media. We will then form research teams to investigate how those frameworks can be used to inform our decision making in different realms of society, such as in sports, the environment, medicine, social justice, and identity. Our work will culminate in presentations from each research team and individual narrative reflections to demonstrate our understanding of the role ethical thinking can play in the decision making of our communities and personal lives.