A method for teaching ethics

Teaching Philosophy

Volumn 19, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 371-383

  Gampel, Eric ^a  

^a CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61449296806     PISSN: 01455788     EISSN: 21536619     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5840/teachphil199619453     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. See for instance Raymond S. Pfeiffer, "Teaching Ethical Decision-Making: The Case Study Method and the RESOLVEDD Strategy," Teaching Philosophy, vol. 15:2 (June 1992), pp. 175-84
2. Morton E. Winston, "Ethics Committee Simulations," Teaching Philosophy, vol. 13:2 (June 1990), pp. 127-40
3. Ronald McLaren, Solving Moral Problems (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1989)
4. Howard Brody, Ethical Decisions in Medicine (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1976).
5. This is the case, for instance, with Raymond Pfeiffer's method, which he calls RESOLVEDD, since it includes nine steps, each of which is fairly involved. I do not expect the method could be applied in a 50 minute class discussion period, as I like to do in my classes.
6. An alternative would be to use the AJ Method later in a semester, after for instance presenting moral theory. The Method could then serve as a practical tool to begin discussion of specific issues, and the incorporation of moral theories in Justifying could be required at the outset. Although I have not used the Method after theory in this way, I suspect some of the same benefits would accrue, since students would be able to see (retrospectively, in this case) the way that theories have implications for applied issues, and thus the importance of grappling with the question of which theory is best.
7. Jonathan Jacobs, "Values, Naturalism, and Teaching the Nature of Values," Teaching Philosophy, vol. 17:1 (March 1994), p. 20.
8. For instance, Daniel Callahan has emphasized the following goals, in addition to what he calls "Developing Analytic Skills": "Stimulating the Moral Imagination"; "Recognizing Ethical Issues"; "Eliciting a Sense of Moral Obligation and Personal Responsibility"; and "Tolerating-and Resisting-Disagreement and Ambiguity".
9. See Daniel Callahan, "Goals in the Teaching of Ethics" in D. Callahan and S. Bok (eds.), The Teaching of Ethics in Higher Education: A Report by the Hastings Center (New York: Hastings-on-Hudson, Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences, 1980), pp. 64-69.
10. Judith Andre, "Beyond Moral Reasoning: A Wider View of the Professional Ethics Course," Teaching Philosophy, vol. 14:4 (December 1991), pp. 359-73.
11. Andre, p. 361
12. Andre, p. 362.
13. Andre, p. 360.
14. My own motivation for developing the AJ Method was partly my dissatisfaction, for some of the same reasons Andre mentions, with the common approach of simply offering students premise-conclusion arguments to attack.
15. Andre, p. 360.
16. Andre, p. 366.
17. see Abraham Edel, Elizabeth Flower, and Finbarr O'Connor, A Critique of Applied Ethics: Reflections and Recommendations (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), pp. 224-40.
18. Martha Nussbaum, "Feminists and Philosophy," The New York Review of Books (October 20,1994).