Ethics (PHIL 202)

Ethics (PHIL 202)

Lecturer: Y. Sandy Berkovski
Fall 2025
Contact details
sandy.berkovski@gmail.com

Readings

Readings for this course consist of book selections and articles. There is only one source: the electronic collection provided by the lecturer.

[Ber25]
Y. S. Berkovski. Ethics: Course reader. Link to the .pdf file forwarded at the beginning of the semester.

Preliminary term schedule

Abbreviations: designates item #i in [Ber25]. Starred items demand especially close scrutiny, either because of the significance of their arguments, or because of their sophistication, or both. Items with a dagger will be discussed only in passing (but remember that every item on the list is a required reading).
Week 0
Horse abuse: Kleist[1]
Week 1
Heinz's drug: Kohlberg[2], Rawls[3]
Week 2
Dogs and tails: Haidt[4]
Week 3
Brains and jokes: *Greene[5], Kagan[6]; Midterm I
Week 4
Dehydrated tourists: Moore[7], *Railton[8]
Week 5
Sailing to Bermuda: *Street[9]
Week 6
Coin in the head: *White[10]
Week 7
Lions and trains: Kagan[11]
Week 8
Under the veil: Rawls[12], †Scanlon[13]
Week 9
Of dogs and men: Nagel[14], Kagan[15]; Midterm II
Week 10
For want of a nail: Smart[16], Williams[17]
Week 11
One thought too many: †Williams[18], *Railton[19]
Week 12
Isms: Kagan[20]
Week 13
From Paris to Tahiti: *Williams[21], *Nagel[22],
Week 14
Your money or your life: Nozick[23], Frankfurt[24]; Midterm III

Requirements

Midterm essays
There will be three (not too long) essays.
Participation
Students are encouraged to take part in the discussion at the class. This includes asking meaningful questions, however trivial they might seem. Random quizzes may be administered. Their grades will contribute to the participation grade.
Etiquette
Please note that latecomers will not be allowed into class, including those that are late from the break. This rule will be strictly enforced throughout the semester. No electronic devices are allowed in class without an explicit leave by the lecturer.

Grading

Midterm essay I                     28%
Midterm essay II                     28%
Midterm essay III                     28%
Participation                     16%
All your grades will take the following values: 100, 99, 90, 84, 70, 59, 10, 0. These values roughly correspond to the Bilkent percentage scale:
Numerical scale (%)                     Letter scale
95 - 100                     A
90 - 94                     A-
86 - 89                     B+
82 - 85                     B
78 - 81                     B-
74 - 77                     C+
70 - 73                     C
67 - 69                     C-
63 - 66                     D+
59 - 62                     D
00 - 58                     F


AI statement
The Philosophy department considers unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI) writing programs on any writing assignment in Philosophy classes a form of plagiarism: presenting something you did not write as if you wrote it. ChatGPT, which produces written responses to prompts provided to it by a human user, is one such program, but there are also others. AI writing can be easily identified as such, and Philosophy faculty members will actively work to identify instances of AI writing on written assignments in their courses. If Philosophy faculty members identify such cases, they will treat them as instances of plagiarism and, therefore, a disciplinary issue.

Students in Philosophy classes are required to research and write their own work. AI writing programs do not give meaningful readings of philosophical texts, and many times, the writing produced by these programs either contains incorrect information or is so vague that it is critically useless. Furthermore, using AI technology in an essay does not help a student to satisfy departmental learning outcomes. If you have any questions about best practices for writing, please feel free to contact your professors in the department.


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