Events

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  Honors College Star Lecture Series: If We Can, Should We?

  Lecture #1: Exploring the Link Between Can and Should: Morality – More Than Just Feelings and Opinions

  Presenter: (William) John Koolage, History and Philosophy Department

  Date: September 18, 2012

  Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

  Location: Student Center Ballroom A

  Learning Beyond the Classroom (LBC) credit

  Co-Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences

  Description: Should I get a college degree? I am capable of doing so, but should I? At first blush, the answers to these questions seem entirely dependent on the desires of the person asking the question. However, aren't they also dependent on what kind of life is available to you if you do or do not get a degree? That is, aren't we responsible (in terms of what we should do) to facts beyond just our own desires? In this talk, I will explore a cluster of concepts that help us to understand and parse the questions above and similar questions, including, but not limited to theories of ethics, theories of well being, anti-skepticism with respect to morality, and Plato's notion that "the unexamined life is not worth living."

  Contact: Dr. Rebecca Bowers Sipe, Director, Honors College - 734.487.0341, rsipe@emich.edu

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  Honors College Star Lecture Series: If We Can, Should We?

  Lecture #2: Ethics and Science 

  Presenter: Harriet Lindsay, Chemistry 

  Date: October 16, 2012 

  Time: 7:00-8:30 pm 

  Location: Halle Auditorium 

  Learning Beyond the Classroom (LBC) credit 

  Co-Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences 

  Description: Among scientists, there is a sense of responsibility to share discoveries through publication in scientific journals. Publication gives proper credit to the discoverer, but more importantly it allows for the free exchange of ideas that may spark others to build on the published results to make their own discoveries. Recently, this principle was tested when it was placed at odds with national and global security. Two scientific teams in the United States and in Europe were working to determine whether a certain deadly strain of bird flu could become much more contagious. Revealing these results to the scientific community would shed light on how viruses spread, but government officials (and some scientists) worried that the results could be used to create a biological weapon. In this discussion, we will examine details about this particular scientific discovery and talk about the larger question of pursing knowledge that may have dangerous implications. 

  Contact: Dr. Rebecca Bowers Sipe, Director, Honors College - 734.487.0341, rsipe@emich.edu

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  Honors College Star Lecture Series: If We Can, Should We?

  Lecture #3: Ethics and the Global Environment

  Presenter: (William) J. Michael Scoville, History and Philosophy

  Date: November 13, 2012

  Time: 7:00-8:30 pm

  Location: Halle Auditorium

  Learning Beyond the Classroom (LBC) credi

  Co-Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences

  Description: Global environmental change, such as that associated with climate change, threatens the flourishing of humans and nonhuman nature. Someone will need to bear the burdens of addressing problematic environmental change, for example, by supporting mitigation, adaptation, and/or restoration efforts. Who should bear these burdens? Further, what constitutes a fair share of the use of the environment, such as the use of the atmosphere as a "sink" for our greenhouse gases? It is difficult to answer the question of burden sharing without also answering the question of who is entitled to what with regard to the use of the global environment. This lecture will explore different possible answers to these questions and will consider some of the philosophical challenges raised by environmental change given its global, intergenerational, and interspecific nature.

  Contact: Dr. Rebecca Bowers Sipe, Director, Honors College - 734.487.0341, rsipe@emich.edu

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  Honors College Star Lecture Series: If We Can, Should We?

  Lecture #4: Ethics and Immigration Policy

  Presenter: Peter Higgins, History and Philosophy

  Date: January 22, 2013

  Time: 7:00-8:30 pm

  Location: Halle Auditorium

  Learning Beyond the Classroom (LBC) credit

  Co-Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences

  Description: Debates about immigration policies the U.S. (or any country) should have usually revolve around one of two moral assumptions: first, that sovereign nation-states have moral discretion to choose whatever policies they like, without regard for principles of justice; second, that sovereign nation-states have a moral obligation to their citizens to choose immigration policies that promote the national interest. In this talk, I will pose some critical questions about these assumptions, including: What sorts of immigration policies do these assumptions support? What are the reasons for supposing they are true? Can these assumptions ultimately survive critical scrutiny? And, what is the implication of rejecting these assumptions?

  Contact: Dr. Rebecca Bowers Sipe, Director, Honors College - 734.487.0341, rsipe@emich.edu

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  Honors College Star Lecture Series: If We Can, Should We?

  Lecture #5: Professional Ethics and Psychology: Just Because We 'Should,' Why Should We?

  Presenter: Flora Hoodin, Psychology

  Date: February 19, 2013

  Time: 7:00-8:30 pm

  Location: Student Center Ballroom B

  Learning Beyond the Classroom (LBC) credit

  Co-Sponsored by the College of Arts and Science

  Description: Psychologists' professional standards of conduct are based on general ethical principles. This session will begin with a brief general orientation to Beneficence and Non-Maleficence, Fidelity and Responsibility, Integrity, Justice, and Respect for People's Rights and Dignity. With this foundation, the majority of this session will challenge students with a number of vignettes of ethical dilemmas psychologists might face. In small groups, students will actively and collaboratively practice implementing steps in a problem-solving rubric which can be used first to reveal the complexities within ethical dilemmas, and second to discover nuanced resolutions to these perplexing predicaments.

  Contact: Dr. Rebecca Bowers Sipe, Director, Honors College - 734.487.0341, rsipe@emich.edu

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  Honors College Star Lecture Series: If We Can, Should We?

  Lecture #6: Ethics and Health Care

  Presenter: Andrea Weid, Health Sciences

  Date: March 19, 2013

  Time: 7:00-8:30 pm

  Location: Halle Auditorium

  Learning Beyond the Classroom (LBC) credi

  Co-Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences

  Description: It has been well established that health is influenced by factors outside of the person, including the opportunities and resources available and status in society. A growing body of literature in the occupational science community calls for occupational therapy practitioners to embrace and stand up for the individual rights, responsibilities and freedoms embedded in a framework of occupational justice. People must have the opportunity "to experience meaning, participation, balance and choice in necessary or desired occupations." And yet healthcare practitioners continue to provide services within a medical model framework, focusing their interventions primarily on the person's underlying disability or condition. Is this ethical practice? Tax dollars and company revenues are spent to reimburse this narrowly focused approach to "health" care. If we can continue to pay for it should we do it?

  Contact: Dr. Rebecca Bowers Sipe, Director, Honors College - 734.487.0341, rsipe@emich.edu

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