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Academic Year 2005/2006


Feminist Practical Ethics
PHIL 280 SP

Crosslistings:
WMST 278

This course focuses on issues at the intersection of feminist theory, practical ethics, public policy and feminist activism. We will be exploring a number of contemporary issues that are important within feminist scholarship and practical ethics generally. It is my hope that exposures to these issues will help provide students with a starting point from which to pursue these topics in greater depth. Throughout the course we will be paying attention to the ways in which feminist theorizing attends to racial, cultural, and sexual difference. While there is no single feminist perspective promoted in this course, our focus will be on the many ways that gendered and racialized social structures have produced inaccurate understandings of ethical problems and their solutions. During the beginning of the course we will examine how gender is constructed, both biologically and socially. We will then explore the nature of equality. Does equality require equal treatment? Equal Opportunity? Equal access to resources and power? Can equality be achieved while important differences are preserved? We will see that there are a number of answers to these questions and different answers to these questions affect the way particular policy issues are addressed. For the remainder of the course we will explore the controversies that have emerged among feminists, and between feminists and non-feminists, over such issues as sexual harrassment, prostitution and other forms of sex work, pornography, hate speech, and additional topics that are important to the class.

MAJOR READINGS

TBA

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Multiple short writing assignments and a final paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course is a gateway to the WMST major.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA PHIL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006


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