Consumer Ethics

Catalog description

This course is an attempt to come to grips with how to consume ethically (if such a thing is even possible). We’ll address several related questions, such as: Do we have any obligations as consumers? If so, what obligations might we have? What is the source (or sources) of those obligations? Do we have an obligation to investigate the provenance of the consumer products that we purchase? Do we have an obligation to engage in “ethical consumerism”? Or might such behavior itself be somehow illicit? Are we complicit in the bad acts of the corporations from whom we purchase products? How might we respond, as consumers, to the problems of consumer ethics?