Final Exam Schedule

Here are the dates and times for the final exams of the classes I teach:

Normal Class time: Final exam date & time
Mondays (Holy Cross): Monday, May 7th, 6:30 p.m.

T/Th 6:30 a.m. (Mt. Laurel): Tuesday, May 8th, 6:30 a.m.

T/Th 9:30 a.m. (Mt. Holly): Tuesday, May 8th, 10:10 a.m.

T/Th 3:30 (Mt. Laurel): Thursday, May 10th, 2:30

All finals will be held in the same classroom where we hold class regularly.

If you cannot make these days or times, please let me know as soon as possible. If necessary, we can make arrangments for you to take the final at the test center.

BCC's entire final exam schedule is available here.

Reading Response #4

Here is the assignment for the final reading response of the semester. Sadz.

Do you think morality involves universal rules that apply in all circumstances with no exceptions? Or do you think circumstances are relevant to judging the morality of a particular action? Be sure to explain and philosophically defend your answer.

The response is due Monday, April 30th for the Monday night class, and Tuesday, May 1st for the Tuesday & Thursday classes.

Links Worthy of a Swine

Here are some links that are very loosely related to the stuff on Utilitarianism that we are studying. Most of these deal with psychology. There's a lot of psychological research on happiness popping up lately. The first link is an overview of the psychology of happiness:

Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness

The second is a slightly optimistic take on our ability to change our baseline level of happiness. This is important to know for an ethical theory that values maximizing happiness:

The Hedonic Set Point Can Go Up

The next link deals with a famous moral thought experiment, the trolley problem. This gets brought up a lot when evaluating Utilitarianism:

Psychology of the Trolley Problem

The last link is an advanced overview of "consequentialist" ethical theories. Utilitarianism is one of the most well-known consequentialist theories:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry: Consequentialism

So what makes you happy? Ping pong? WaWa? Coldplay?

Relative to You, But Not to Me

Here's a trio of links on ethical relativism. The first is a sophisticated version of ethical relativism backed up by recent psychological research.

Interview with Moral Psychologist Jonathan Haidt

The second one is an advanced overview of various versions of moral relativism from a great online resource.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Article on Moral Relativism

The last one is a dinosaur comic (what else?) on ethical relativism. Click on the comic to enlarge it:

Extra Credit Assignment

As we discussed in class, here is an optional extra credit assignment.

In an essay that's as long as a reading response, answer the following questions: Which do you think is more important to determining the morality of a particular action: the intentions behind someone's actions, or the consequences of that action? Why do you think this? Be sure to explain and philosophically defend your position.

For the Monday night class, this assignment is due Monday, April 23rd. For the Tuesday/Thurdsay classes, this assignment is due Tuesday, April 24th. It is worth up to 2.5 points added to your final grade. I will not accept any late assignments (unless you have an excused absence).

Reading Response #3

Here is the assignment for reading response #3. For the Tuesday/Thursday classes, it is due Tuesday, April 10th. For the Monday night class, it is due Monday, April 16th.

Explain and philosophically defend your beliefs about the existence of God. Are you a theist? Atheist? Agnostic? Are you a non-evidentialist? What reasons do you have for your position? Has your position changed at all as a result of studying arguments for and against the existence of God in this class? Have the reasons you use to support your beliefs changed?