Spring 2009/Pasadena
ET849/549
Murphy/Brown

ET849/549: THE THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE OF VIRTUE. Nancey Murphy and Warren Brown.


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:

Hauerwas, Stanley. Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics. Trinity University Press, 1985.

MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. 2nd ed. University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.

__________. Dependent Rational Animals. Open Court, 1999.

McClendon, James. Ethics: Systematic Theology, Volume 1. 2nd ed. Abingdon, 2002.

Murphy, Nancey, Brad Kallenberg, and Mark Nation, eds., Virtues and Practices in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre. Notre Dame, 1997.

Extensive course reader.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT: Careful reading of texts; regular attendance; class participation. PhD and ThM students: seven 3-page papers due in preparation for class sessions, one 20-page paper due June 12. Master's-level students have the choice of writing seven 3-page papers or one 20-page paper. CATS students' grades will be based 40% on short papers, 60% on final paper.

PREREQUISITES: Master's students: permission of instructor (previous coursework in philosophy or ethics, G.P.A. of 3.5).

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Elective at master's level. At ThM and PhD level, may be counted as either a philosophy or an ethics seminar.

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.

This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. (1/09)