Teaching Ethics with Three Philosophical Novels

Michael Boylan (Ph.D. University of Chicago, Philosophy; M.A. University of Chicago, English Literature) is Professor of Philosophy at Marymount University. He is the author of 22 books in Philosophy spanning Ethics and Social/Political Philosophy to Philosophy of Science and to Philosophy and Literature. He is also the author of 135 articles on the same. Boylan is also the author of 6 published novels, a professionally produced play, two books of poetry and scores of short stories. In the practical world Boylan has served on political advisory committees at the national and international level.

• Introduction: Using Fiction to teach Philosophical Ethics.- Part One:  A very short textbook on ethics with primary readings.- Chapter One: First Order Metaethical Principles: Boylan’s Philosophical Work on Ethics and Personhood Theory.- Chapter Two: Virtue Ethics with selections from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.- Chapter Three: Utilitarianism with a selection from Mill’s Utilitarianism.- Chapter Four: Deontology with a selection from Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.- Part Two: The Novels.- Chapter Five: Rainbow Curve .- Chapter Six: To the Promised Land .- Chapter Seven: Naked Reverse.- Appendix:  Sample Syllabus and Paper Rubric.