The Margaret MacMillan Trinity One Program

Ethics Stream

Students in the Ethics stream enrol in TRN170Y1, TRN171Y1 and a first-year course in English, Philosophy, Political Science; or a course taken with permission of the Coordinator. These three courses are among the five courses typically taken by a first-year Arts and Science student.

TRN170Y1: Ethics and the Creative Imagination

A woman in a moment of crisis can save only one of her two children. What should she do? This ethical issue arose for a woman in the tsunami disaster of December 2004. Ethical issues frequently involve conflicts. What should we do if we face a conflict between love and duty? or between family and self? This weekly seminar course explores ethical issues through the study of works of the creative imagination that pose or provoke questions of right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice. The selected works will be drawn from such fields as literature, film, and the visual and performing arts.

TRN171Y: Ethics and the Public Sphere

Is it morally legitimate for a state to intervene in another state for humanitarian reasons? This is an ethical issue in contemporary international relations. In this weekly seminar course we study a selection of influential texts that have examined issues in the public sphere from ethical perspectives. We also exlore a selection of these issues themselves, such as humanitarian intervention, war crimes, human rights, genetic engineering, corporate responsibility, private vice and public virtue, and "the tragedy of the commons".