Ethics in Emergencies

Catalog description

When the Supreme Court found Lincoln’s decision to suspend habeas corpus during the Civil War to be unconstitutional, he retorted: “Is it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution?” Leaders often justify extreme measures by insisting that they be held to different standards during emergencies: the regular rules don’t apply, they tell us. Indeed, it is not just the constitution but morality itself that is portrayed as overly restrictive during critical emergencies and “states of exception.” But ethics and moral philosophy are not simply an armchair pursuit: they are important tools to help citizens, soldiers and leaders make tough decisions in times of crisis. This course is designed to introduce students to the main variants of ethical thought and critical theory and to apply these modes of thinking to various kinds of emergencies which confront the state (and the United States in particular) today, including the threat of terrorism (domestic and international) and pandemics. Students will become conversant in consequentialist and deontological ethics, while also investigating the constraining values of liberalism, democracy, cosmopolitanism, human rights, feminism, and just war theory. Policies and dilemmas to be examined include torture and enhanced interrogation techniques, citizen surveillance and the suspension of civil liberties, drone warfare, whistleblowing, and indefinite detention.