Ethics

(1) According to the above, our ethics was »the philosophical discipline inquiring particularly about human being«. The primal aim of this course is to, introducing several distinguished results of philosophical speculation on this problem, provide students the opportunity to think philosophically and spontaneously about human, i.e. themselves. (2) Our method was, according to the above, »historical«. Two things, »thinking philosophically« and »reading classics« are connected inseparably. It may be not too much to say that philosophy and thus also our ethics belong to philology in its broad sense. After all, the most fundamental reason for this situation, i.e. why the study of classical texts still continues to be the main task of many of contemporary philosophers is, presumably, that many of the problems tackled and thoroughly considered in these texts are meaningful to us. To help students understand this »atemporal« significance that every classical text still attracting the interests of modern philosophers has, is the secondary aim of this course. (3) In this course, many concepts and terms belonging to the »schoolbook« knowledge will be introduced. Though the third aim of this course is to help students acquire a knowledge and an understanding of them, notice that the ethics taught in college is essentially not a subject that requires so-called »memorizing«.

Ethics in its fundamental parts cannot be distinguished from philosophy distinctively. The ethics we will discuss in this course is this fundamental ethics, i.e. the philosophy dealing with ethical problems. Here, ignoring the question about the essential determination of philosophy now, we will define initially our ethics in its broadest outline as the philosophical discipline inquiring particularly about human being. Accordingly, the principal problem of this course can be formulated as follows: What is the philosophical thinking about human. We will approach to this problem in historical manner, namely, deal with several classical important results of philosophical speculation on human being and, for each of them, give a rough outline of it. Incidentally, almost all of these philosophical doctrines will discuss the problem of human being especially in relation to two moments, i.e. »God« and »World« (or at least one of them). Furthermore, if the situation calls for it, the »class schedule« mentioned below may be changed.

1. Be able to think philosophically and spontaneously about human.
2. Understand the timeless significance that every classical text still attracting the interests of modern philosophers has.
3. Acquire a knowledge and an understanding of ethical concepts and terms belonging to the »schoolbook« knowledge.

In this course, in each class, around the end of it, students will take a short written exam. In these exams, students are required not only to exhibit the correct understanding of the contents of the class, but also to pose an opinion and a question of them.
Your overall grade in this course will be decided based on the following:
- Short written exams mentioned above: 30%,
- Final Exam: 70%.

Japanese

In each class, materials will be handed out to students.

• If you have any questions of the contents of the classes, you can freely ask me about them in the short written exams mentioned above. You can also directly contact me for questions by visiting the »hijoukinkoushishitsu«. I will be in this room at the following times: Fridays, 12:40-13:00.

Non-regionally-oriented course

• Course that cultivates a basic self-management skills
• Course that cultivates an ability for utilizing knowledge

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