PHIL 206 Morality and Law (Same as Political Science 236) (Not offered 1997-98)

This course is an introduction to moral philosophy for those interested in law and the legal profession. The introduction will examine how John Rawls and Martin Luther King discuss the relationship between morality and law in the context of civil disobedience. The first half of the course will be an intensive look at two great moral systems oriented around rules or principles: Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and J. S. Mill's Utilitarianism. Each week in the second half of the course we will examine a different area where morality and the law meet, and our readings here will consist mainly of court cases and law-review articles. All the topics for this part of the course will concern issues of gender, such as battered women, rape, pornography, and paternalism.
Requirements: a group paper, frequent short papers, a take-home midterm, and a take-home final exam.
No prerequisites.

GERRARD