Ethics & Society
Calibrate your moral compass.
One of the newest majors at Whitman, Ethics and Society gives you the tools to engage with the morally complex world we live in. Through this Philosophy-based program, you’ll explore how ethics can help us find practical solutions to society’s biggest problems. You’ll dig deep into topics like animal rights, biomedical ethics, climate change, criminal justice, and racial and gender justice. The world needs people who can navigate complex moral questions, understand how to act and communicate that understanding to others. If you’re ready to change the world for the better, Ethics and Society can give you the skills to do it.
3 Reasons to Study Ethics & Society at Whitman
Solve Real-World Problems
Whitman’s distinctive Ethics and Society major builds a solid ethical foundation for future leaders, activists and engaged global citizens. You’ll become a fearless thinker and a persuasive communicator as you prepare to take action in the real world.
Experience Justice Firsthand
If you’re interested in the ethics of criminal justice, Whitman’s relationship with the nearby Washington State Penitentiary offers unique opportunities, such as collaborative courses with incarcerated students, informal reading groups and joint cultural events.
Bring It All Together
In your senior capstone experience, you’ll take the skills you’ve learned and apply them to an issue you care about in a substantial public-facing team project. This is a game-changing opportunity to put your ideas into action and to practice communicating them to the public.
Interested in Ethics & Society?
We’d love to send you information, including more on academic majors and student life at our beautiful campus in Walla Walla, Washington.
“Many of our students are keenly interested in questions of how we ought to act and interact with the people and world around us. While students can explore these questions within the existing Philosophy major, the new Ethics and Society major will allow students to choose a narrower focus of study.”
Courses in Ethics & Society
See just a few of the fascinating courses you might take.
Ethics
This introductory course is the perfect place to start exploring the world of ethics. You’ll learn about a variety of ethical theories and ground them in real-world scenarios. You’ll begin to appreciate how many different ways there are to approach ethical questions, and you’ll start to examine your own moral commitments.
Restorative Justice
If wrongdoing is a breach of relationships, then restorative justice seeks ways to repair those relationships. In this course, you’ll examine restorative justice theory and practice, and explore ways it might be implemented within, alongside or in place of our current criminal justice system. This class meets at the Washington State Penitentiary and includes the unique perspectives of incarcerated students.
Animals and Philosophy
Our lives are intertwined with the lives of animals. We eat them, wear them and experiment on them—yet we also consider them family members. How is it that they can serve all these purposes? In this course, we will try to understand the mental lives of nonhuman animals and define the moral dimensions of our relationships with them.
