Reflection Essay

.docx

School

Pasco-Hernando State College *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

1630

Subject

Philosophy

Date

Oct 30, 2023

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by EarlLark3741

Ashley 1 Ashley Prof. Nazelrod PHI 1630 6 December 2019 Reflection Essay I am a new college student fresh out of high school, and this fall I began my very first term at Pasco-Hernando State College. I came into this term with very few expectations for this Applied Ethics course and truly wondered how someone would teach ethics. My initial reaction to the course was that, morality needs to be taught at birth and that a college course would do nothing for those without morals. Although as soon as the first class passed, I would soon come to realize that the course was focused more on discussing ethics in modern problems rather than teaching ethics. When we began the class back in August, we started talking about the spectrum of schools of thought in terms of politics. With progressive and liberal ideologies on the left and conservative and republican ideologies on the right. Which are good ways to introduce the modern ethical problems we would soon discuss. This way when we would cover the topics, we could briefly cover the two (usually two) opposing perspectives. Soon after we dove into abortion, with the two opposing perspectives being in opposition of abortion (pro-life) and those supporting the choice to abort (pro-choice). Though as we proceeded to discuss the topic, I appreciated the way we covered several of the school of thoughts because it was an effective way to cover a variety of opinions. From some people opposing abortion completely to some making exceptions for concerning circumstances such as sexual assault and incest to some supporting abortion all the way to a full term. Realizing the different kinds of opinions makes a student’s academic opinion better because they benefit from being open-minded and aware of why people have their different opinions.

Ashley 2 With every ethical dilemma covered, we had article critiques to pair them with (although the death penalty got an extra one). From doing the article critiques it taught the students to research and inform themselves on these controversial topics. That in itself is valuable because when topics are controversial no one benefits from ignorant opinions. Not only does it teach students to be well informed on important topics, but it also teaches them to question the source of the information they have read. From taking an author’s purpose into account to determining if the author held any personal biases while writing the article. This repeated process of analyzation throughout the class helped strengthen and/ or build their critical thinking. One of the best benefits of the course is that it fosters a better future for students. It is easy to think of this course as just a college course, but it carries far beyond that. When students are able to talk about modern issues in an academic setting, they are given an opportunity to defend their opinion and provide why they think it matters. Which is a rare opportunity to come by nowadays. While some students may not value these discussions, they truly do benefit from them because these modern issues are on voting ballots, they are amendments and bills, they are the future. The course prepares its students to be actively involved and concerned with what is going on in the world around them. With fully informed minds, students can vote confidently for their futures, for the future they want and not just some future that someone else (who may not have been informed) has voted for. In conclusion, the Applied Ethics course, even though it is considered a philosophical course, can greatly build upon a student’s academic skills. Those including critical thinking, reading, and writing by the use of assignments like article critiques where a student can inform themselves. The course also helps students build their future by teaching that ethics transcends past the classroom and out into the real world. In the end, Applied Ethics turned out to be more

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version