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Upper School
Upper School

Ethics

With the belief that character matters as much as knowledge, Walker’s is committed to helping students learn to value individual differences, make sound moral judgments, and live an examined life. Toward these ends, students are required to take a one-semester course that focuses first on philosophical ethical theory and on current ethical issues or a survey of World Religions. Each course in this section fulfills the Ethics graduation requirement. Environmental science, a full-year course offered through the science department, also fulfills the ethics requirement.

Courses in this department:

Ethics

Ethics

Students open their study of the discipline of Ethics with the text: Happier by Ben-Shahar. The text is based on findings from the positive psychology movement: the cornerstone of both our wellness and ethics programs. Students are asked to keep a journal in which many specific writing tasks (including reflection and analysis) accompany the text. Next, students read an introduction to Ethics: Being Good by Simon Blackburn. Blackburn surveys the contemporary philosophical scene in the field of ethics first addressing various threats to the ethical enterprise and then pointing readers to important trends in ethical reflection. Finally, students are asked to research a moral leader of their choosing and present their findings to the class. A research paper on the ethical life studied is the culminating assessment of the course.

Grades 11-12, Fall Semester
Credit: .5 

World Religions

The course is designed to introduce students to the world’s great religious traditions. The primary intellectual assumption will be appreciative: religions have ethical insights and world views that are worth understanding. Among the traditions studied are: Indigenous Sacred Ways, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. If time allows, we will also look at new religious movements on the contemporary scene. Attention to scriptures that are sacred to the traditions will be incorporated at every opportunity. At least two visits to religious services will be required along with anthropological accounts of the experience. The course will involve a significant amount of discussion and its success will depend on the teacher’s ability to foster trust, tolerance of differing beliefs and a search for the truth. The goal of the course will be to help students understand the contributions religions have made to civilization and to promote tolerance for beliefs which differ from their own.

Grades 11-12, Spring Semester
Credit: .5 

Social & Political Philosophy

Although the course will focus primarily on the development of political philosophy in the 20th century, it will begin with a preliminary examination of the rise of liberal democracies in the West since the Enlightenment. Particular attention will be paid to the tragic struggle between Marxist and Capitalist societies over the values of freedom and justice and on the contrast between philosophies that advocate violent or non-violent social change. Students will have the opportunity to read Gandhi and Martin Luther King in significant depth and finally to think about the struggle for human rights and the well being of people in the modern world through the efforts of non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Grades 11-12, Spring Semester
Credit: .5 

 
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