Moral Status

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course will explore the concept of Moral Status from a variety of perspectives and at a variety of levels. The concept is critical to several deeply important moral issues, from the very applied (the treatment of non-human animals, abortion) to the more abstract (the concepts of interests, rights, dignity/sanctity). It also offers a fascinating lens for exploring a variety of meta-ethical issues: the relation between abstraction and specific pragmatic contexts/practices (eating things, use of things in research, equality of social status, recognition); the relation between theoretical reflection and felt/experiential knowledge; even questions about what ethical duties philosophers have when commenting publicly on their scepticism about the status of entities who are part of someone else's family. Topics will include non-human animals (from the higher cognition/emotional capabilities of dophins, Great Apes, and elephants, to those such as jellyfish that press the meaning of sentience); early human organisms (from zygotes to newborns and beyond); non-standard humans among us (including the catastrophically cognitively disabled, the psychopathic, and those living with autism); and transhumanism (the implications of radically enhanced humans). In additional to using traditional academic readings, the course will aim to bring the outside world into the seminar, with guest speakers, and the seminar out into the world, with an occasional field trip.