Ethics, Minor

Director: Joseph Ogbonnaya, Ph.D.

The interdisciplinary minor in ethics provides an opportunity for students to explore the moral dimensions of human life and to develop the ability for critical ethical analysis in their personal and professional lives. By encouraging students to seek values across the curriculum in a formal and disciplined way, it prepares graduates not only for the modern workplace, but for the world in its most urgent and deepest complexity. First-level courses introduce the basis of ethical reasoning within philosophy and Christian faith. Second-level courses engage students in the application of ethical theories to particular ethical issues or problems (e.g., business ethics, environmental/ecological ethics, poverty, racism). Third-level courses allow students to explore the contexts of various institutions and social domains (e.g., the legal system, social and institutional dimensions of race and gender, mass communication) in which ethical decisions must be made. A capstone seminar integrates two or more disciplines to provide a more comprehensive approach to ethics problems.