Over the course of the last nine weeks, I've picked up a certain amount of practical knowledge, and a good deal of perspective. To consider three lessons I've taken away from the course, I can certainly attest that I was reintroduced to some ideas from college philosophy classes I hadn't revisited in several years, primarily to include the discussions of consequentialism and deontology which I believe I first heard about when discussing the likes of Mill and Kant. Indeed, to consciously examine issues from within those different frameworks as well as the overall idea of pragmatism can generate some thoughts on why some people believe what they do. Second, I took away that the very nature of ethics demands critical thinking and a certain mental flexibility, for in the ethical dilemmas we studied there were often no correct answers but several right answers that present themselves based on the moral lens applied to the situation...While greater society and in some cases universal notions of humanity will lean strongly towards ideas of not killing or stealing in general circumstances, but each situation ultimately needs to be acted upon by the agents involved to the best of their abilities. Third, and tied in to the first two ideas, though we may have different ethical lenses and value systems formed by our various paths in life, more often than not it can be argued there are situations by necessity, special skills, or otherwise in which people must take some kind of action via moral obligation. This might be captured most succinctly by the thoughts of many a great leader that points towards the idea of "duty".
Indeed, the course did provide a range of perspective through readings that at times demanded thorough examination for understanding, as well as the wide range of thoughts and experiences that every student brought to the course. Having to stop and apply these perspectives to an examination of my own "built-in" value system was helpful towards me achieving better understanding of why I think the way I do, and why people may disagree. I do have to admit that while the content seems worth the time, the means of delivery in the context of my daily life proved at times to be a challenge. The remote nature of online learning lends itself to requiring a lot of writing assignments, and balanced against a full time job and daily life, there were occasions when some of the shorter write ups or forum prompts felt more than adequate to drive home the necessary points of the lesson.
Having said that, I think the overall course was accomplished as best as possible given the circumstances of instruction, and though some of the topics could at times go in several different directions, I understand the point of the text in exploring different situations where ethics can be applied. While the issues themselves, be they affirmative action, racism, animal treatment, or otherwise, may not have a direct relationship at the superficial level, all share the general notion of people thinking through the full spectrum of implications for their actions (or lack thereof), and in most cases these examples were ones where students could make a connection in some form, big or small. So long as the required writing pieces can be continually refined for relevance and motivating engagement from the students, I expect the course will continue to fulfill the core objective of enhancing ethical foundations that can be applied to any endeavor for a lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment