Spring 2027

Introductory Ethics

Introductory Ethics covers moral problems, ethical theory, moral skepticism, practical ethics, and the evaluation of social institutions.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Russ Shafer-Landau4.3/5Paula Gottlieb3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Russ Shafer-Landau

Russ Shafer-Landau provided test questions in advance and selected from them, allowing students to skip readings if they paid attention in lecture.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe some of the key questions related to morality.

  • Explain what some of the historical figures within moral philosophy have argued, why they are relevant and interesting, and be able to critically evaluate their arguments.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
PHILOS 241

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Russ Shafer-Landau

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.52/5 from 52 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 5.0/5 raw quality · 1.0/5 difficulty · 1 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Russ Shafer-Landau

Russ Shafer-Landau presented information in an interesting manner and did not force views down students' throats. He provided test questions in advance for students to study from, and one student noted that paying attention in lecture meant they did not need to do the readings.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.68 GPA, 82.1% A/AB (n=134 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.52 GPA, 74.8% A/AB (n=123 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.46 GPA, 66.1% A/AB (n=56 letter grades).

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.70/5 from 27 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.60 GPA, 83.8% A/AB (n=80 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.71 GPA, 85.9% A/AB (n=78 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 83.0% A/AB (n=53 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Joel Ballivian, Michael Bruckner

Joel Ballivian taught the course with a discussion-based approach, grading 6 small assignments and a final exam; he was lenient with absences and emphasized participation. Michael Bruckner used two essays and two open-book quizzes, providing helpful study slides and other resources. Students found these formats manageable and supportive of learning.

AUGUSTA MOORE is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CLAUDIA CARD is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAVID O'BRIEN is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

EMILY FLETCHER is recorded teaching in Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

EMMA PRENDERGAST is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

FRANK CABRERA is recorded teaching in Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

HUBERT MARCINIEC is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2023, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOEL BALLIVIAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL BRUCKNER is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PAULA GOTTLIEB is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RUSS SHAFER-LANDAU is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 690
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 690
LEC 003Classroom Instruction0 / 690
DIS 321Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 322Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 323Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 331Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 332Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 333Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 230

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Russ Shafer-Landau

Russ Shafer-Landau presented information in an interesting manner and did not try to force views down students' throats.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 80.5% A/AB (n=236 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.63 GPA, 82.4% A/AB (n=255 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.90 GPA, 96.9% A/AB (n=195 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Russ Shafer-Landau

Russ Shafer-Landau provided test questions in advance and selected from them, allowing students to skip readings if they paid attention in lecture.

Past student reviews · Russ Shafer-Landau

Students found Russ Shafer-Landau to be very helpful and an awesome professor.

Topics

  • Moral problems and ethical theory
  • Moral skepticism
  • Practical ethics and evaluation of social institutions

Skills

  • Analyze moral problems, ethical theories, moral skepticism, practical ethics, and the evaluation of social institutions.
  • Describe key questions related to morality.
  • Explain and critically evaluate arguments from historical figures in moral philosophy.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.18 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PHILOS 241 · Spring 2027

Introductory Ethics

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:736:014688",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 241",
    "course_uid": "course_badd2b5c09509247a930e344",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "014688",
    "source_subject_id": "736",
    "title": "Introductory Ethics",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "114eb2d2ffb7d6e7fd74db55425ea768bdec3e629a0924aaa42316ebb77c5891",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}