DESCRIPTION: This is a 6-unit seminar for doctoral students, also offered at
the 500-level as a 4-unit course open to a limited number of master's level
students. It involves presentation of research done by Brown and colleagues,
both written and in lecture format. The two types of research are brain scans
of subjects participating in economic games and latent semantic analysis based
on interviews with morally exemplary persons. This is ongoing research, with
the goal of showing a correlation between patterns of brain activation and
patterns of speech typical of moral exemplars. The purpose of the course will
be to reflect philosophically and theologically on the import of these
findings, primarily from the point of view of virtue ethics.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Although ethics was treated by
philosophers as a discipline autonomous from both science and theology during
most of the modern period, it is now recognized by many that ethics needs to be
informed both by scientific knowledge of human capacities and limitations, and
by some account of ultimate reality, which in turn provides an answer to the
question of the purpose of human life. This course will prepare students in
particular to read and reflect on the implications of new neuroscientific
findings related to moral behavior.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Knowledge: familiarity with some of the best recent
thinking in ethics found in both theology and philosophical ethics, as well as
with the methodology of latent semantic analysis, and some of the findings of
the new discipline of neuroethics. Skills: enhanced ability in moral reasoning
and debate. Attitudes: increased appreciation of the role of both biology and
religious belief in moral reasoning.
COURSE FORMAT: This is a bi-level course for advanced master's students and
for PhD and ThM students. The class will meet once per week for a three-hour
session. Approximately half of the class time will be devoted to presentation
of scientific findings by visiting scholars; the rest will be devoted to
discussion of the readings and of their relationship to the science.
REQUIRED READING: