Philosophical Analysis of Contemporary Moral Issues

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Critical study of principles and arguments advanced in discussion of current moral issues. Possible topics include revolutionary violence, rules of warfare, sexual morality, right of privacy, punishment, nuclear warfare and deterrence, abortion and mercy killing, experimentation with human subjects, rights of women. P/NP or letter grading.

Review Summary

Clarity
3.3 / 10
Organization
3.3 / 10
Time
0-5 hrs/week
Overall
6.7 / 10

Reviews

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2022 In-Person
    Grade: A-

    TA carried the class as DeWitt is somewhat disorganized and reads off of a document. Class has 3 papers that you have to write which were graded harshly

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2022 In-Person
    Grade: A

    Your mileage will definitely vary for this class, depending on your how good your TA is at teaching and how they grade. My TA Esther was amazing. You could pretty much skip the main lectures because her explanations about concepts that taught in lecture were so good, and she was super effective at prepping the class for the papers by going over the prompts and possible ways you could respond to them. Unfortunately, the TA strike meant the end of discussions, but the professor was really accommodating and pretty much gave everyone As for the rest of the quarter. Expect the grade distribution for this quarter to be pretty skewed. Unless you have a really good TA, I think this would be a pretty hard class. However, I found the concepts that were covered super interesting (especially Kant), and I would take another course like this one again.

Course

Instructor
Janelle Dewitt
Previously taught
24W 22F

Grading Information

  • No group projects

  • Attendance not required

  • 1 midterm

  • 10th week final

  • 50% recommend the textbook

Previous Grades

Grade distributions not available.