Intro to Ethics: Speaking to this moment in history
“There can be something very powerful about naming and articulating, in compelling and potent terms, what it is we’re going through. And having the tools of philosophy and ethics can help us do that, together.”
In designing her Intro to Ethics course for this semester, Professor Maggie Little wanted to give students the philosophical and ethical tools they need to grapple with the unique challenges of this moment in history: the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice movement, and the upcoming November election.
“There can be something very powerful about naming and articulating, in compelling and potent terms, what it is we’re going through. And having the tools of philosophy and ethics can help us do that, together,” said Professor Little, who is the founder and Director of Ethics Lab. “That itself is a force for resilience. I hope that some of the philosophical tools we’re studying will help students grapple with and advocate more to be forces for social justice.”
At Georgetown, all undergraduate students are required to take an Intro to Ethics course, part of the university’s commitment to Jesuit education. “Part of what Ethics Lab does,” says Professor Little, “is take that opportunity and use it to equip students for the ethical challenges they’ll face in the real world as citizens, as neighbors, as professionals.”
The first module of the course is focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. Students examine issues of loss and sacrifice, of trust and mistrust, and of hope and resilience in crisis.
“In designing the course, I decided to start with the pandemic because of all of the challenges and issues we’re facing, that is the most immediate,” notes Professor Little. “The pandemic is creating enormous uncertainty, what the course calls ‘narrative disruption.’ I wanted to start the class with that so we could go through the journey together, and support one another, and to see the pandemic as an invitation to think about types of loss, the importance of trust in society, and the resilience of hope in the face of such deep challenges.”
“Part of what Ethics Lab does,” says Professor Little, “is take that opportunity and use it to equip students for the ethical challenges they’ll face in the real world as citizens, as neighbors, as professionals.”
The next module will focus on the racial justice movement and its ethical and moral significance. “This is a moment where the conversation seems different,” Professor Little says. “The hope that, perhaps because the pandemic has made us all stop, more people are open to listening, grappling with, and working towards social justice.”
By examining these issues in the class, she hopes that students will translate their study of ethics to answer moral questions in the world around them. Students will write about and discuss systemic racism, epistemic injustice, and questions of reparation and atonement which are especially consequential in this moment.
The final module of the course will turn towards the fall election, particularly focused on polarization in the United States today. “We are living in an unprecedented time with this election, where our democracy is so divided that it may not stand. The course is going to look both at the causes of the divisions, why are we so polarized, and what we as citizens can do to bolster our republic,” says. Professor Little.
By tying together ethical questions raised by these three modules—the pandemic, the racial justice movement, and the election—students will translate their knowledge of ethics to the world around them. The course reflects not only these immediate moral challenges but, more broadly, the enduring questions of ethics and morality that guide the work of Ethics Lab.