Chetan Cetty
As primary instructor
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Spring 22, Spring 23; SUNY Oswego, Fall 23
A survey course introducing students to debates surrounding questions such as: what is race? what is racism? is affirmative action justified? what form of reparations is owed to address historic injustices? is mainstream political philosophy racist?
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Spring 22
An introductory course focusing both on traditional and applied philosophical questions about the law. The course begins with a survey of competing arguments on various policy topics including capital punishment, free speech, the commodification of female bodies, and racial profiling. Then, students pivot to thinking about traditional questions in analytical jurisprudence, and normative and critical theories of the law.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Fall 21, Spring 23
A survey course on the ethics of state prohibition and punishment of actions. The course introduces students to general ethical theories and the structure of moral rights before examining key questions surrounding punishment, including what it is, and what might justify it. The remainder of the course focuses on various contemporary topics related to punishment including police brutality, predictive policing, and prison labor.
University of Pennsylvania, Fall 19, Spring 20
This is a seminar-style course focusing on current public policy issues of ethical importance such as climate change, abortion, gun control, black reparations, and economic justice. A unique feature of the course is its prioritization of oral over written assignments for course assessment. Two such oral assignments include (1) an individual presentation in which students evaluate a public policy debate on a social media platform by critiquing the arguments made and considering how social media has impacted their quality; and (2) a parliamentary-style group debate on one of the contemporary issues discussed in class.
University of Pennsylvania, Summer 19; SUNY Oswego, Fall 23
A survey course starting with topics in applied ethics such as animal ethics, abortion, the ethics of self-driving cars, and affirmative action. The course then covers the major moral theories before discussing classical debates in metaethics such as realism v anti-realism, motivational externalism & internalism, and moral relativism.
University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2019
An introductory course focusing on three questions: (1) what should businesses/firms do?; (2) what should consumers/employees do?; and lastly, (3) what should governments do? Topics here include what obligations businesses have and to whom, theories of distributive justice justifications for socialism and capitalism, the fairness of CEO pay, the permissibility of sweatshops in developing countries, the justifiability of manipulative advertising, social media, and its ethical implications for the proper functioning of democracy.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Spring 22
A survey course exposing students to the ethical resources to being a morally good entrepreneur. The course is divided into three parts, each exploring a distinct question: (1) what should I do as an independent moral agent (or entrepreneur)?; (2) what kind of society should we help create;? (3) how should businesses conduct themselves?
University of Pennsylvania, Summer 2018, Fall 2020; Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Fall 21, Fall 22; SUNY Oswego, Fall 23
A survey course in the history of political philosophy focusing on the figures who defined the social contractarian tradition. Contractarians studied include Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Rawls, and Nozick. Critics of contractarianism such as Hume, Astell, Wollstonecraft, and Mills are also discussed, along with other major thinkers such as Mill and Marx.Â
Georgia State University, Summer 13, Fall 13, Spring 14; University of Pennsylvania, Fall 20
This introductory course covers a range of classic questions in philosophy including: What is the right thing to do? What is consciousness? What are the correct principles for organizing society? Can machines think? Does God exist? Is it possible to have knowledge of the external world? Authors covered include Judith Jarvis Thomson, Immanuel Kant, J.S. Mill, Aristotle, Bertrand Russell, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, David Hume, Rene Descartes, St. Anselm, and Daniel Dennett.