Ethics (Pre-university programs)

 Most people know that ethics involves considering questions and issues about right and wrong. However, studying ethics at cégep involves more than simply arguing about whether an action or social policy is “right” or not; moreover, it considers such questions in a qualitatively distinct way.  In the Ethics course, students learn to critically consider the foundations of various ethical viewpoints and judgments, in terms of the theoretical basis underlying them.  Students also learn to situate ethical theories and issues in terms of what they have learned in previous humanities courses, Knowledge and World Views. Thus, a major focus of the course involves considering how and on what basis various ethical judgments and viewpoints can be justified, whether progress is possible in ethics, and what method should be employed in making and justifying ethical theories, arguments and viewpoints.  The broad-ranging and generalized nature of ethical theory and issues precludes specific sections from focusing on one type of content or subject-matter. However, students in all sections will be asked to, and instructed on how to, work on a major project or paper that requires them to focus the ethical analyses on a topic in applied ethics, relevant to their program of study.