What should you do if your boss asked you to cut corners on an engineering design if you thought the changes might put people in danger? Should you blow the whistle?
If the technology becomes available, would it be okay to genetically engineer a child to eliminate or add certain traits? If so, which ones?
Those are the types of ethical issues students in the Ohio Northern University’s Honors Program class on practical ethics are wrestling with this semester.
Faculty members Dr. Jonathan Spelman and Dr. Robert Hartman are each teaching two sections of the three-credit course. Spelman is associate professor and Hartman assistant professor of philosophy. ONU also offers other courses in professional ethics to students in pharmacy or engineering, for example, but this Honors course takes a different approach.
The three-credit honors course was inspired by Dr. Forrest Clingerman, late director of the Honors Program and professor of religion, said Spelman.
The innovation in this honors class for first-year students is that they will not only be able to delve more deeply into topics on practical ethics, but competitions on ethical reasoning are built into the course. The competitions allow students to present their arguments for and against their views on ethical issues.
More than 70 students are enrolled in the four sections, and each class will have two competitions during the semester.
A final competition between the top team from Spelman’s class and the top team from Hartman’s class will determine “the kings and queens of ethical reasoning,” Hartman said, with a smile.
In the classes, students look at case studies, and develop presentations for and against various positions. One case study, for example, involves Harvard University. In 2017, that university revoked admission offers to at least 10 students after a group exchange of racist and sexist Facebook messages. The ethical issues debated at the time involved free speech vs. protection against hate speech and the increasing influence of social media.
Students work in teams, reading about and discussing the cases and developing their positions, Spelman explained. The format gives them more ownership of the issues than simply listening to a lecture, he added.
The presentations also encourage cooperation because the teams receive feedback and commentary from other students in the class and can use that to improve their arguments.
“A good commentary can help a team create a better version of their argument, " Hartman said. “It doesn’t have to be destructive; it can be constructive.”
Likewise, the competitions aren’t just about winning; they are about helping each other, he added.
The class can help students change, grow, and understand other viewpoints as they discuss issues and positions with other members of their team.
“They’re often excited to hear what other people think,” said Spelman, “because they’ve grown up around people who think the way they do so they’re curious to hear other opinions and try them out.”
The discussion of the issues also helps students form their own philosophy of life.
“That leads to developing their own views,” said Spelman. “They hold them autonomously. They chose their beliefs rather than having them handed to them.”
Spelman hopes, he said, that class members can also learn about civil discourse in the class. “Before, they knew there were other people who thought different things, but they didn’t understand why. Once they understand why, they can appreciate the other side a little better.”
Both professors were inspired to research, write about, and teach philosophy, and, particularly ethics, by their own experiences. In college, a professor suggested philosophy as an elective, Hartman said, and he was intrigued. Philosophy isn’t as respected in America as it is in Europe, so he didn’t know what philosophy was until he took a philosophy class, he added. “What I found was that class was asking the questions I was asking and they cared about the things I cared about. ‘What is true?’ ‘What makes an action right or wrong?’ ‘What makes for a good life?’”
Spelman, who also coaches ONU’s Ethics Bowl team, said his introduction to philosophy was similar. He was required to take a philosophy class at his university, and “just really fell in love with the issues.” Like Hartman, he was drawn to exploring the ethical questions and issues that had already piqued his interest.
Hartman and Spelman both hope that by the end of the Practical Ethics course, students will feel more prepared and confident in navigating the ethical decisions they’ll encounter in the future.
“It’s good for people to know those ethical decisions are coming,” said Hartman.