Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for PHL 202 Winter 2025


Course Number:
PHL 202
Course Title:
Ethics
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Covers attempts by philosophers to account for the difference between right and wrong, for the notion of moral obligation and to answer the question: How should we lead our lives? Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Articulate key philosophical arguments in the field of ethics.
  • Identify the influence of culturally based perspectives, values and beliefs to examine how diverse philosophical perspectives affect human experience.
  • Construct arguments on ethical issues using critical reasoning to identify and investigate philosophical theses and evaluate information and its sources.
  • Respond to arguments on ethical issues using critical reasoning to identify and investigate philosophical theses and evaluate information and its sources.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Philosophy courses ask students to use critical thinking and reasoning skills in multiple ways: to identify the content, structure, and influence of beliefs, to examine how diverse philosophical perspectives affect human experience, and to construct and respond to arguments on a variety of philosophical issues. They encourage students to both create and understand theirs and others’ frameworks of meaning, and to use this new understanding in their own lived experience.

Course Activities and Design

The course will be conducted in both the standard classroom and distance learning settings.  It will involve lectures, discussions, and other assignments such as exams and papers.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assessment strategies will include some of the following:
 

  • Essays in the form of in-class exams, short papers, or term papers
  • Student presentations
  • Class and small group discussions
  • Portfolios
  • Service learning projects
  • Attendance

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Themes, concepts, Issues:
The course will focus on the following topics and issues with a primary focus on the Western philosophical tradition:
 

  • Meta-ethics (or Ethical Theory)
  • Normative Ethics
  • What is the philosophical significance of core ethical concepts such as good, evil, right, and wrong?
  • How have some historically significant philosophers (including, but not limited to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Moore, Ayer) responded to philosophical questions concerning morality?
  • Epistemological and metaphysical issues that are raised in connection with Ethical Theories (such as, Are Ethical claims knowledge claims? In what ways do persons differ from other sorts of entities?)


Competencies and Skills:
Students will learn to:
 

  • Comprehend philosophical writings dealing with morality.
  • Paraphrase, illustrate, and explain ideas contained in philosophical writings dealing with morality.
  • Critique and challenge philosophical ideas dealing with morality.
  • Write philosophically coherent arguments concerning ethical theories and issues.