C1.3 Unit 6: Ethics

Overall aims:

Discuss and analyse complex ethical questions around controversial topics. Work at basic debating skills. Participate in discussion that challenges moral assumptions. Follow and counter complex arguments on ethical and political questions.

Project: 

Write a clear and cohesive essay. 

Inter-class debate

Topics / resolutions

1. Eating meat is no longer sustainable or ethical.

2. The global domination of English is a bad thing.

3. The USA has dominated the world for too long. It's time for other nations to take the lead.

4. Competitiveness makes society a better place.

5. Euthanasia is ethical.








Key words from textbook

contentious
argumentative
veganism
euthanasia
an advocate
dilemma
fallible
arbitrary


Phrasal verbs

lag behind
crack down on
stand by (sth)
act out
call (sb) out
reach out to (sb)
resign oneself to
stand up for
declare against


Grammar

Modal auxiliaries and their functions: permission, promise, obligation, strong recommendation, ability, prediction, advice, hypothesis, suggestion, possibility.

Hypothesis (wouldn't it be nice if...)


General intro to ethics quiz


P 70 Reading

24 collocations etc


Who are these dudes?

Answer

Socrates
Aristotle
Kong, Fu-Zi (Confucius)
The Buddha
Jesus
Muhammad 
Niccolo Machiavelli
Immanuel Kant
Friederich Nietsche
Hannah Arendt
Albert Camus



Which person said it?

1. "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil."

2. "Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever has not kindness has not faith."

3. "The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

4. "For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? "

5. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

6. “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” 

7. "The mind is everything. What you think, you become."

8. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

9. "Politics have no relation to morals."

10. "An unexamined life is not worth living."

11. "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide."

Answer

1. Hannah Arendt
2. Muhammad
3. Friederich Nietsche
4. Jesus
5. Kong, Fu-Zi (Confucius)6. Immanuel Kant
7. The Buddha
8. Aristotle
9. Niccolo Machiavelli
10. Socrates
11. Albert Camus

Which of these quotes

A) Is concerned directly with ethics?
B) Is concerned indirectly with ethics?
C) Isn't concerned with ethics?

Write A, B or C next to the quote.













What have you heard about these concepts from moral philosophy?












Machiavellianism








Cynicism










Existentialism











Utilitarianism












The Socratic method











Civil libertarianism











Is moral philosophy worth bothering about?












Where do you get your basic ethics from? Religion? Your culture? Your upbringing? You own reflections? TV?









How would you describe your basic ethical framework?

Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic etc...
Liberal
Traditional
Atheist, non religious, rationalist
Materialistic
Environmentalist
Utilitarian
Anarchist
Communist
Cultural relativist










Do you think there are universal ethics?








Some the week's optional topics and activities:

Talk about what they might entail

TED Talk: We Need A Moral Operating System
Listening: Moral Blind Spots
Reading: Are Laws Meant to be Broken?
Video: I Jumped Off Golden Gate Bridge
Listening: Aurelia Brouwers - Euthanasia for mentally ill people
Listening / watching: The Nuclear Debate
Watching: Vice - Krishna Meet Fiona Patten of the Sex Party
Listening / watching: Niccolo Machiavelli
Adapted reading: The Life and ideas of the Buddha
Reading / listening: Homeless Jesus
Video: How to Write an Essay
P 72: How to write an essay 
Listening / reading / watching: Vsauce - Why Bad Words Are Bad (the social history and the social benefits of swearing)


We can't do them all. Which one's intrigue you more?