A note to my students...

Dear Ethics Students,

Your papers should be better than the Wikipedia article. This is your notice that, due to insomnia and the fact that I've read all the blogs in my reader AND the debaters on the forum are behaving themselves today, I've read the relevant Wikipedia articles on the ethical theorists in my class. You can and should either a) just write your own paper or b) find other sources I haven't read from which to plagiarize.

Because I've been to grad school and have read the book(s) your readings come from, I know reading original source material is usually at least one or more of the following:

• hard
• boring
• confusing
• demoralizing
• time consuming
  

That is why we call it philosophy, not 'easy, interesting, easy to follow, perky and quick' studies. That is also why you need to pay for this class, as it isn't a book club. If you knew this stuff already, then it wouldn't be worth your time and effort to take the class. If the college thought you knew this stuff already, I'd be teaching a class that was much more interesting to ME -- and I'd then have to give you other ways to challenge yourself. Since most of you came in without a working knowledge of ethical theory, we need to teach it to you. Also, those of you who are familiar with the ethical theory are the first ones to admit that you can learn more about it -- and you are my favorites :).

love,
someone who wants to to read the actual work -- not the cliff notes of the cliff notes.