Page 346 - Social Sciences Humanities - The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 to 12 - 2013

Grade 12, University Preparation
D1. Understanding Ethics: demonstrate an understanding of the main questions in ethics, and of the positions of major philosophers and schools of philosophy with respect to some of these questions;
D2. ExploringEthics:demonstrateanunderstandingoftheoriesinethics,andevaluateresponsesto some of the main questions in ethics by major philosophers and schools of philosophy;
D3. Making Connections to Ethics: demonstrate an understanding of connections between ethics and other areas of philosophy, other subject areas, and various aspects of society, including everyday life;
D4. Philosophical Reasoning in Ethics: use philosophical reasoning skills to develop, communicate, and defend their own responses to philosophical questions in ethics.
D1. Understanding Ethics
D2. Exploring Ethics
THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9–12 | Social Sciences and Humanities
SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS
By the end of this course, students will:
D1.1 demonstrate an understanding (e.g., in class discussions, debates, presentations, written work) of some of the main questions in ethics (e.g., Are there objective standards for determining good and evil, right and wrong, or are these concepts based on entirely subjective opinions? What is duty? What is the nature of responsibility? How should
I live my life? What is a good life? Is morality separable from religion? Are there, or should there be, universal moral norms for all individuals and cultures? What is virtue?)
D1.2 summarize the positions of various major philosophers (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Confucius,
the Buddha, Aquinas, Bentham, Mill, Kant, Singer, Kierkegaard, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Gauthier, Levinas, Nussbaum, Williams) and schools of philosophy
(e.g., stoicism, hedonism, utilitarianism, existential­ ism, nihilism, ethical relativism, moral particularism, the schools of virtue ethics and theistic normative ethics) on some of the main questions in ethics
By the end of this course, students will:
D2.1 explain, with reference to some classic and contemporary texts, different theories in ethics (e.g., excerpts from Plato’s Euthyphro, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Mill’s Utilitarianism,
Confucius’s Analects, Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Sartre’s Existentialism Is a Humanism, Singer’s Animal Liberation, Jaggar’s Feminist Ethics, Nussbaum’s The Fragility of Goodness, Gyekye’s An Essay on African Philosophical Thought) and the ethical implica­ tions underlying various religious texts (e.g., Buddhism’s Eightfold Path, Anishinaabe Principles of Life and Seven Grandfather Teachings, the Christian Bible, the Islamic Qur’an)
D2.2 compare how different philosophers and/ or schools of philosophy approach the same questions/issues in ethics
Teacher prompts: “What challenge to
morality does Glaucon raise in Book 2 of Plato’s Republic? How does Plato respond to that challenge?” “In what ways would Okin and Hobbes differ in their views on the morality of family life?” “What differences are there in the views of human nature held by Rousseau and Confucius?” “What arguments do Kant and Nozick make with respect to human moral obligation?”
D2.3 evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of philosophical responses to some of the main questions in ethics
Teacher prompt: “What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of different answers to classical ethical problems such as the Plank of Carneades, Philippa Foot’s ‘Trolley Problem’, or John Harris’s ‘Survival Lottery’?”
D. CORETOPICS:ETHICS OVERALL EXPECTATIONS
By the end of this course, students will:
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