Requirement Purpose
Engaged citizens think critically about the sources and meanings of their commitments to personal integrity, moral responsibility, and social justice. Engagement is typically seen as an activity; one is engaged when one is doing something within her or his community, society, nation, or world. What constitutes the right kinds of actions and engagement? If being engaged requires participation, must one’s participation be to further causes of personal integrity and social justice, or can one participate in the system by supporting causes and actions that only support his or her personal views or objectives? All of these questions are fundamentally questions about moral values and actions and how they relate to our responsibilities to ourselves and others. This means that being an engaged citizen, in part, requires an understanding of ethics and value systems. The purpose of the courses that fulfill the ethics and value inquiry requirement is to provide students with this understanding.
Required Course Characteristics
A course in this area will
| EV CC1. | have ethics and value inquiry as the primary focus |
| EV CC2. | provide students with the opportunity to explore and reflect on a variety of perspectives about values |
Area of Engagement Learning Objectives
Through completion of an EV course, students should be able to
| EV SLO1. | make judgments about values and actions by critical evaluation from a variety of normative perspectives |
| EV SLO2. | identify and critically evaluate multiple approaches to ethical, moral or values questions |
| EV SLO3. | articulate and justify values and actions in light of normative theories, logical principles, foundational texts, or traditions |
| EV SLO4. | articulate and critically assess how various normative perspectives are relevant in contemporary society |