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Course Info for RELG - 335 - 01, Fall 2026
Class number: 3365 Title: Buddhist Ethics Department: Religious Studies
Career: Undergraduate Component: Seminar Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 19 Current enrollment: 10 Available seats: 9
Start date: Tuesday, September 8, 2026 End date: Wednesday, December 23, 2026 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: MW: 11:30AM-12:45PM, LSC - 131 Instructor(s): Angowski, Elizabeth
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities and Global Requirements
Course Description:
How do Buddhists understand what it means to live well with and for others? How do they imagine and sustain just institutions? To address these questions, this course examines the place of ethics and moral reflection in Buddhist thought and practice. The first third of the semester focuses on how Buddhists have framed abstract topics like the nature of being, the nature of the world, moral subjectivity, moral agency, the value of rationality, and so on. Next, we pay close attention to the formulation and application of moral guidelines in lived contexts. During the latter portion of the term, we study Buddhist approaches to contemporary social and political issues.