Spring 2011 Course Guide- McGuire

Ethics: East and West 
56:606:541:J1
Saturday 9:00 AM – 2:20 PM
Professor Ken Howarth 
howarthk@mccc.edu

Graduate students are introduced to scholarship in virtue-centered theories of ethics in the Western and Asian traditions.  We shall focus in particular on the classical and contemporary grounds and ethical contexts with and to which the major virtue-based traditions aim. The broad issue of how cultivating excellence of character provides an adaptive and compelling approach to individual, role-based, group and societal ways of good living and moral practices will also be examined. Emphasis will be given to critical analysis of theories with roots in the Aristotelian and Chinese thought, though other key theories will be studied, along with consideration of gender, cultural, and economic factors. A wide variety of primary sources will be drawn upon, including philosophical, historical, literary and scientific materials.