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CEPL Mission Statement | top
The King's College Center for Ethics and Public Life was established to be a visible, dynamic expression of the commitment of King's College to offer students intellectual, moral, and spiritual preparation for satisfying and purposeful lives. That college wide warrant has its origins in the statement of the founding President, that King's College teaches students “not only to how to make a living, but how to live.” (Fr. James Connerton, C.S.C., 1946)

Acting as a catalyst for the integration of serious ethical study and reflection within the various professional and business programs offered by the College, the Center seeks to transform the public and personal dimensions of students' lives through moral reflection. It seeks to empower students – as well as faculty, administrators, and staff members – to be wise stewards of resources of the world and to be agents of peace and justice in their generation.

Catholic higher education “has a moral purpose as well as an intellectual purpose” (Fr. James Lackenmier, C.S.C., 1992), and the Center for Ethics and Public Life is charged explicitly with promoting that moral purpose by:

Upcoming Events | top

CEPL Events for Fall, 2004


Past Events | top

Spring 2004 Events
Amy Laura Hall, “The Child as Project: Reproductive Biotechnology in the U.S.,” April 6, 2004

Amy Laura Hall, “Children as Interruption: Child Welfare and the Recalibration of Time.,” April 6, 2004

Fall 2003 Events
Panel discussion on "Justice and Care: A Dialogue on Feminist Ethics," November 13, 2003 (Panel participants: Dr. Gregory Bassham, Dr. Philip Muntzel, Fr. Jack Ryan, C.S.C., Ms. Abby Myers).

Spring 2003 Events
Lecture by Fr. Stefano Penna, "A Canadian Catholic's Response to the USA's Request to be United in War," February 21, 2003.

Annual Ethics Center Lectures by Dr. Maura Ryan, "Justice and Mercy in an Age of Cloning: Debating Stem Cell Research" and "Women, Children, and War," April 1, 2003.

Fall 2002 Events
Faculty Forum on "Introduction to the Just War Tradition" (moderated by Dr. Philip Muntzel), October 3, 2002.

Panel discussion on "The Theology of Stanley Hauerwas on Peace and War," October 17, 2002. (Panel participants: Fr. Tom Looney, C.S.C., Dr. Peg Hogan, Dr. Margarita Rose, Dr. Joel Shuman, and Fr. Thomas O'Hara, C.S.C.)

Lecture by David Kline, "The Spirituality and Ethics of Place," November 4, 2002.


Spring 2002 Events
Annual Ethics Center Lecture by John P. Wilcox and Nancy L. Thomas, "Campus Conversations on Values: Addressing an Issue and Developing a Culture," March 14, 2002.


Ethics Minor | top

The Minor in Ethics and Values is intended to provide students with increased opportunities to address ethical issues in public and professional life. All students are welcome to the program, but those who intend careers in business, government, journalism, law, and medicine should be especially interested. Courses in the program are designed to give students a solid background in the moral literature of philosophy and theology as well as opportunities to address contemporary moral issues, especially as they occur in the context of professional life.

MINOR REQUIREMENTS
(7 courses - 21 credits)

CORE 260
Basic Christian Ethics (3)
CORE 286 Introduction to Philosophical Ethics (3)
PHIL/ 470 Ethics and Values Seminar (3) or
THEO 470 Ethics and Values Seminar (3)

Four of the following:

CORE 261 Faith, Morality, and the Person (3)
CORE 263 Christian Marriage (3)
CORE 284 Philosophy of Human Nature (3)
CORE 285 Philosophy of Death and the Meaning of Life (3)
CORE 287 Ethics, Business, and Society (3)
CORE 288 Bioethics (3) or
THEO 345 Bioethics (3)
THEO 331 Christian Social Ethics (3)
THEO 337 Issues of Christian Ethics (3)



Links | top

Director | top

Prof. Gregory Bassham
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Hafey-Marian Room 508
Phone: (570) 208-5900, ext. 5784
Fax: (570) 208-5988
E-mail: ghbassha@kings.edu
Web page: http://www.kings.edu/ghbassha/index.htm

Advisory Board:
Fr. Tom Looney, C.S.C. (Chair); Prof. Jayne Klenner-Moore; Prof. David Baggett; Prof. Hamid Hosseini; Prof. Jeremy Simington; Prof. Ed Ockerman; ; Prof. Marc Marchese; Prof. Tara Shawver