We teach ethics, across the curriculum.
The Prindle Institute’s staff includes experienced teachers and scholars who bring innovative approaches to ethics education into the classroom. In addition to their work at the Institute, our faculty regularly offer courses at DePauw that connect ethical theory with real-world practice—ranging from traditional philosophy and applied ethics classes to special project-based and service-learning courses that extend beyond campus. Students can also enroll in focused, add-on reading courses designed to deepen engagement with specific ethical themes or thinkers. Across all formats, our teaching reflects a shared commitment to inquiry, reflection, and creative pedagogy in ethics.
Fall 2026 Course Offerings
PHIL 197: Is College Valuable? | Jamie Herman
What is college? How might it be valuable? And for whom? Though these questions may be both familiar and daunting as a college first-year, you are not alone in wondering if college is worth it. Parents, students, professors, and the general public have long grappled with whether or not higher education is valuable. Over the last decade, tuition costs have continued to rise, we’ve seen a boom in alternative learning opportunities through generative AI and YouTube, colleges across the US have closed their doors, and doubts about the value of a degree have made main-page headlines. Given all of this, is college valuable? This course takes this question, and the competing worries that inspire it, seriously. Together we will analyze arguments for and against the value of college; explore different types of value and what factors we consider in assessing value; and reflect upon our own arguments for/or against the value of college. Together, we will create a space to ask tough questions, explore what we value, and critically reflect on why we’re here.
PHIL 209: Voices and Votes: The Practice of Democratic Citizenship | Alex Richardson, Kristen Fuhs Wells
How should democracy work in theory, and how does it work in practice? This course takes up both questions at once. Students engage the deliberative tradition in political philosophy, from Jürgen Habermas to Iris Marion Young, and develop practical skills in facilitating civic dialogue. The course is organized around a semester-long partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition *Voices and Votes: Democracy in America*, hosted at the Prindle Institute for Ethics from Oct. 10 through Nov. 20, 2026. Students contribute to the exhibition’s public programming through service work at the Institute.
UNIV 290: Living and Learning with AI | Jeff Dunn, Andrea Young
What does it mean to learn, work, and live in a world saturated with advanced AI? Co-taught by a philosopher and a mathematician, this course bridges the philosophical and the practical. Students examine the economic realities of the future of work, the ethics of automation, the hidden value of difficult tasks, and the purpose of a liberal arts education. By actively engaging with AI tools, students develop the critical, quantitative, and moral frameworks necessary to live well within them. No prior experience with AI required.
LEAD 333/PHIL 209: Ethical Perspectives for Leadership | David Holiday
This course builds skills in ethical reasoning for students interested in the ethical dimensions of leadership. Students begin with the core capacities for ethical argument: analysis, evaluation, and construction. From there, the course examines three frameworks especially relevant to leaders: consequences and their effects on multiple stakeholders; power and the responsible use of influence; and character and its role in shaping organizational culture. The course concludes with attention to distinctive ethical challenges in leadership contexts, including role modeling, managing up, and the need for ongoing growth.
PHIL 230: Ethical Theory | David Holiday
A survey of historical and contemporary approaches to the central problems of ethics, including the standard of right and wrong, the criteria of goodness, the possibility of ethical knowledge, and the role of reason in moral life.
PHIL 233: Ethics and Business | Tucker Sechrest
This course examines the relationship between markets, social and political life, and the legal institutions that constrain and enable economic activity. Is the market a friend or foe of equality? What kind of freedom does the free market promise? Do businesses have obligations to support socially desirable ends? Students engage these questions through a combination of Supreme Court opinions and classical and contemporary political philosophy.
Winter 2027 Course Offerings
UNIV 184: Beyond the Game: Building a Career in Sports | Kristen Fuhs Wells
Indianapolis is one of the most influential sports cities in the world. This winter term course uses it as a classroom. Through site visits, guest speakers, and independent research, students explore the history, strategy, and infrastructure behind Indy’s sports ecosystem, from amateur athletics and organizations like the NCAA to global motorsports and professional teams. The course also examines emerging sports technology ventures and Indiana Sports Corp’s vision to make Indiana the global epicenter of sports by 2050. Place-based learning is paired with professional development, making this course a strong fit for students interested in sports management, business, media, public relations, nonprofit leadership, and public policy.
Ethics Reading Courses
No matter how busy you are, you can work ethics into your schedule with a quarter-credit Prindle Ethics Reading Course. In these courses, you’ll read and discuss with your professor and classmates a single work to enhance your understanding of the field of ethics or an individual ethical issue. These quarter-credit ethics reading courses allow students to easily weave an ethics component throughout their curriculum while at DePauw. Consult the Schedule of Courses to register for one of these courses today!
Fall 2026 Reading Courses
On Beauty and Being Just
Timothy Barr | First 8 Mondays, 7:00–8:30 p.m. | Pass/Fail
What does beauty have to do with justice? Beauty can seem personal, even frivolous; justice seems urgent and moral. Yet philosopher Elaine Scarry argues that experiences of beauty can reshape how we think about fairness, care, and the repair of the world. This 8-week seminar explores the surprising connections between aesthetics and ethics, with Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just as our central text. Students will practice slow reading and discussion, learn to see beauty in unexpected places, and reflect on how beauty has shaped their own ethical commitments.
A Relational Moral Theory: African Ethics in and Beyond the Continent
David Holiday | First 8 Tuesdays, 7:00–8:30 p.m. | Pass/Fail
This course offers a close reading of Thaddeus Metz’s newest work in relational, community-based ethics in the African tradition. Students engage with contemporary African philosophy and an approach to ethics that differs sharply from the individualism of Western liberal moral theory. No prior background in African philosophy is required, though students with some grounding in ethics or theories of justice will find the material especially rewarding.
The Power of Bridging: How to Build a World Where We All Belong
Tamara Stasik | First 8 Wednesdays, 7:00–8:30 p.m.
When is it worth reaching across divides? How do groups create insiders and outsiders? What does fairness look like when people share common goals but arrive from very different starting points? This course explores those questions through a close reading of The Power of Bridging, organized around six big ideas: bridging as a democratic practice, othering and structural belonging, targeted universalism, narrative and framing, civic imagination and coalition-building, and institutional design and power. Assignments include reflection papers, field reports, narrative workshops, and short presentations.
Love Your Enemies
Town Oh | First 8 Mondays, 7:00–8:30 p.m. | Pass/Fail
This course examines the moral challenges of disagreement in an era of deep political and social polarization. Using Arthur Brooks’s Love Your Enemies as a central text, students explore ethical questions surrounding anger, contempt, forgiveness, and human dignity in public life. Through close reading and structured dialogue, students practice charitable interpretation of opposing views and develop the skills of ethical reasoning and civil discourse. Note: the course involves active discussion of students’ own moral and political beliefs alongside peers who hold different perspectives.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
David Alvarez | First 8 Tuesdays, 7:00–8:30 p.m.
Is self-interest the engine of a prosperous society? Does greed serve the common good? In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith makes a provocative case for the role of self-love in economic life. This course takes that case seriously, asking what ethical commitments Smith actually requires for a free and flourishing society. Through close reading, engagement with current scholarship on Smith, and vigorous discussion, students tackle the moral questions at the heart of one of the most influential books ever written.
Of Boys and Men
John Mark Day | First 8 Mondays, 7:00–8:30 p.m. | Pass/Fail
What does it mean to be a man right now? In Of Boys and Men, Richard V. Reeves argues that modern males are struggling, largely because society has failed to define what modern masculinity actually means. Using Reeves’s book as a foundation, this course examines ideas of masculinity, the ways individuals and society support and challenge each other, who gets left out of these conversations, and how every member of the DePauw community can become more fully who they hope to be.