NS 4903 - Ethics:  Good in Theory
This course is a philosophical survey of major ethical theories that individuals or societies use to form their moral worldview.  The course will seek to make moral philosophy less daunting than it sounds to a casual observer.  In fact, one presupposition of the course is that, as moral agents by virtue of being in various relationships with others, everybody has a philosophy--a way of thinking about and engaging others.

Thus, the course will also seek to move the student, as a military officer and a moral agent, beyond an external understanding of the major ethical theories and ask them to articulate their moral worldview and the ethical framework (theory) that forms the skeleton of that worldview.  Such introspection is vital to one's self-knowledge as a leader and active participant in the military ethos and general culture at large.  While this is certainly true within our own culture in day to day life and work, it is also true for engaging other cultures when deployed as operators, analysts, or staff officers.  One cannot effectively deal with another perspective unless they have a firm grasp of their own ethical framework.

NS 4904 - Comparative Religious Ethics of the World Religions
This course Introduces, compares, and contrasts the religious presuppositions of five of the world’s major religions:  Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.   Those religions cover much of the world that service personnel of the United States military serve when forward deployed.   Thus, we will examine and compare how each religion approaches specific ethical issues of today.   We seek to explore the ethics of each religion that arise from its religious presuppositions and discriminate those ethics from a course of behavior by proponents of each religion that are political in nature.   

Given the differences between the religions, or between a given individual and any of the religions, this course seeks a deeper understanding of each religion to facilitate dialogue both in areas of operation and at home.  Thus, it would be of particular interest to those who are studying specific geographic regions of the world or are studying at the Naval Postgraduate School to become foreign affairs or military liaison officers.