Ethics Thought Experiments: The Trolley Problem and Beyond – Tuesday – Winter 2024 – 10 Weeks – Grades 8 – 10

In this ten-part class, thought experiments and hypotheticals will lead us into discussions on real world ethical dilemmas.  If you’re a fan of the show The Good Place, this is the class for you, and if you’ve never seen the show, you will enjoy this class too!

Studying ethics is incredibly fun, and it also develops critical thinking and logical reasoning skills.  But most importantly, studying ethics helps people develop their own moral codes.

Every one of us must make ethical choices throughout our lives.  There is an ethical dimension to every aspect of life, whether it is our relationships with friends and family, our academic lives, or our jobs.  We must make choices about what actions to take; we have to decide what is right and what is wrong.  The goal of this course is to give you tools to use when you are faced with these kinds of decisions.  We will explore some of the most important philosophies of ethics, and we will see how thought experiments relate to very real, concrete situations.  

This is a discussion class–there will not be any lectures.  We will use thought experiments, or hypothetical ethical dilemmas, to focus our discussions on various questions and ideas in ethics.  Students should come to class prepared to actively participate.

Students will be provided with a resource booklet of quotations we will use during the course.

Student should expect approximately one to two hours per week.  Assignments will include short writing assignments in response to our discussions.

NOTE: This class must reach the minimum of five students by December 15, 2023 to run. If we do not reach this minimum, parents will be notified via email.