Crisis Ethics: War, Pandemic and Social Collapse

Catalog description

Questions of ethics are difficult enough in periods of relative calm. In times of crisis, where literally thousands of lives (or more) are at stake and time to deliberate is short, contemplating the finer points of morality can seem a luxury one can ill afford. And yet, times of crisis are when we would like to see our best ethics put into practice. This course will consider the ethics of extreme and dire circumstances such as war, pandemics, and social collapse. We will consider skeptical challenges which claim questions of ethics during a crisis are either irrelevant or are reducible to single metrics (e.g., lives saved/lost). Conversely, we will also engage with views which promote the strictest ethical standards and accountability for those times when our decision making matters the most. Additional topics include group deliberation, collective responsibility, and restorative justice. This course fulfills an Applied Ethics course requirement.