Course syllabus
Course Description
This course will look at some theoretical issues that lie behind applied and professional ethics. We will begin with some issues in the theory of applied ethics – whether practical moral expertise is possible and the role of principles in applied ethics - before turning to professional ethics. In the professional ethics we will look at issues including the idea of role-differentiated ethics (the idea that moral obligations might attach to roles rather than to individuals); the relation between applied and professional ethics and normative moral theory, (consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics); and the concept of integrity as it applied in professional and applied contexts. The professional ethics part of the course will use my book The Counsel of Rogues: A Defence of the Standard Conception of the Lawyer’s Role (Ashgate, 2009; Routledge, 2016) as a framework. That book focuses on law and lawyers, but we will following up relevant themes and issues as they apply more broadly to applied and professional ethics, asking, for instance whether the model I defend with respect to lawyers is relevant to other professions. We will also explore issues which the account raises, such as the idea of moral expertise.
Reading Material
Links to the readings - including the recommended text - are provided through the Canvas 'Reading Lists' tab. Additional material will be provided though Canvas.
Recommended Text
Tim Dare The Counsel of Rogues: A Defence of the Standard Conception of the Lawyer’s Role (Ashgate, 2009; Routledge, 2016)
Assessment, Coursework and Final Examination:
Coursework for this paper consists of one essay of about 3000 words and four 250 word summaries of topics covered in the discussion hour. The 250 word summaries are due within seven days of the discussion hour at which the topic you are writing on was discussed. (There will be eleven discussion hour meetings (Thursday 3-4, room 206-302). Participation in the discussion hours is recommended but not compulsory. They will begin in week 2).
There will be a two-hour final examination.
Your final mark will be the sum of 50% of your mark on the final examination, 40% of your essay mark, and 10% of your mark for the four short summaries of discussion topics.
Essays:
You must submit your essays electronically through Turnitin. You are not required to submit a hard copy.
Essays are due on Friday September 22.
Essay Topics:
1. Present and discuss the idea of practical moral expertise.
2. Present and discuss at least one significant challenge to applied ethics.
3. Present and discuss the role of principles in reasoning in applied ethics.
4. Present and discuss the idea of role-differentiated obligation.
Lectures
Week 1: July 14, Lecture Tuesday July 25.
Introduction & Challenges to Applied Ethics
Reading:
Tim Dare, ‘Challenges to Applied Ethics’, Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics (Second Edition) 2012, Pages 167–173 https://doi-org.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/10.1016/B978-0-12-373932-2.00015-6
Week 2: July 31, Lecture Tuesday August 1.
The Idea of Moral Expertise
Readings:
HL Dreyfus and SE Dreyfus, ‘What is Moral Maturity? A Phenomenological Account of the Development of Ethical Expertise’ in Universalism and Communitarianism ed. D Rasmussen (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1990) 237-264 ISBN 0262181401
Tim Dare, The Counsel of Rogues, pp. 103-106
Jan Crosthwaite ‘The Nature of Ethical Expertise: A Problem in the Professional Ethics of Professional Ethicists’ (1995) 9 Bioethics 361-379 ISSN 0269-9702
Scot D. Yoder 'The Nature of Ethical Expertise' The Hastings Center Report Vol. 28, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 1998), pp. 11-19
Week 3: August 7, Lecture Tuesday August 8.
Principles and Applied Ethics
Readings:
Alastair McIntyre ‘Does Applied Ethics rest on a mistake?’ (1984) 67 Monist 498-513
Henry S. Richardson ‘Specifying, Balancing, and Interpreting Bioethical; Principles’ (2000) 25 Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 285-307 ISSN 0360-5310
Bernard Gert, Charles M Culver, and K Danner Clouser ‘Common Morality versus Specified Principlism: Reply to Richardson’ (2000) 25 Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 308-322 ISSN 0360-5310
Week 4: August 14, Lecture Tuesday August 15.
Professional Ethics: An example - The Standard Conception of the Lawyer’s Role
Reading:
Tim Dare, The Counsel of Rogues, pp.1-29
Roles - Lawyer example Powerpoint
Week 5: August 21, Lecture Tuesday August 22.
The Idea of Role Obligation
Reading:
Alan Gerwith ‘Professional Ethics: the Separatist Thesis’ (1986) 96 Ethics pp. 282-300
Michael Hardiman 'Role Obligations' (1994) 91 Journal of Philosophy pp.-363 ISSN 0022-362X
Judith Andre ‘Role Morality as a Complex Instance of Ordinary Morality American Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 28, No. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 73-80 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20014357
Tim Dare 'Robust Role Obligation: How to Roles make a moral difference?' The Journal of Value Inquiry, 2016, Vol.50(4), pp.703-719
Powerpoint: The Idea of Role Obligation
Week 6: August 28, Lecture Tuesday August 29.
Role Differentiation Continued
Reading:
Tim Dare, The Counsel of Rogues, pp.29-57
John Rawls 'Two Concepts of Rules' (1955) 64 Philosophical Review 3-32 ISSN 0031-8108
Arthur Applbaum ‘Are Lawyers Liars? The Argument of Redescription’ (1998) 4 Legal Theory 63 ISSN 1352-3252
Mid Semester Break: Saturday September 2 – Sunday September 16.
Week 7: September 18, Lecture Tuesday September 19.
Integrity and Detachment
Can professionals maintain personal integrity while also giving proper respect to the demands of professional roles? Is integrity a 'substantive' moral concept, such that one has it only if one is a good person, or a formal concept requiring only that one's preferences and dispositions are coherent in some sense?
Powerpoint: Distance, Detachment and Integrity
Required Reading:
Cox, Damian, Marguerite La Caze and Michael Levine ‘Integrity’ (2005) Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (online) ed. Edward Zalta
Tim Dare The Counsel of Rogues Chapter 7, ‘Distance, Detachment and Integrity’
Cheshire Calhoun ‘Standing for Something’ (1995) 92 Journal of Philosophy pp. 235-260
Extra Reading:
Dean Cocking and Justin Oakley, Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2001) Chapter 7 ‘Professional detachment in health care and legal practice’ pp.137-171 ISBN 052179305
Daniel Markovits A Modern Legal Ethics: Adversary Advocacy in a Democratic Age (Princeton, 2008)
Bradley Wendel (2010) ‘Personal Integrity and the Conflict Between Ordinary and Institutional Values’ Tim Dare and Brad Wendel Eds. Professional Ethics and Personal Integrity (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010), pp 238-269
Week 8: September 25, Lecture Tuesday September 26.
Integrity and Detachment cont.,
Updated distance detachment integrity powerpoint
Week 9: October 1, Lecture Tuesday October 2.
The Client/Professional Relationship
Powerpoint: The Client/Professional Relationship
Reading
Dare The Client/Professional Relationship
Charles Fried 'The Lawyer as Friend'
Week 10: October 8, Lecture Tuesday October 9.
Professional Ethics and Virtue Ethics 1. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
Reading/Watching:
Tim Dare 'Legal Ethics and To Kill a Mockingbird' Philosophy and Literature 2001
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
To Kill a Mockingbird, Universal Studios, 1962, Directed Robert Mulligan, Starring Gregory Peck
Week 11: October 16, Lecture Tuesday October 17.
Virtue Ethics 1. Professional Ethics and Neo- and Post-NeoAristotelian Virtue Ethicxs
Reading:
Practical Virtue Ethics Christine Swanton
Course summary:
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