Spring 2027

Contemporary Moral Issues

A philosophical study of major moral issues in contemporary society, including abortion, euthanasia, punishment, property, politics, sex, nuclear disarmament, and world hunger.

offering recorded3–4 credits

Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Harry Brighouse4.3/5 Alexander Meehan3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Harry Brighouse

The course involved two exams, two essays, and weekly discussion posts. One student noted it was not an easy A class, while another found the overall difficulty manageable.

What you’ll be able to do

Describe, with clarity and precision, some of the key moral debates that we currently face.
Explain some of the positions that philosophers have defended related to contemporary moral debates.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗

average GPA
letter grades

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Professors

Spring 2027

Harry Brighouse

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 4.57/5 from 53 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: 4.6/5 raw quality · 3.0/5 difficulty · 5 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Harry Brighouse

Harry Brighouse led engaging, discussion-style lectures where students did most of the talking, though he often went off-topic. The course required two exams, two essays, and weekly discussion posts.

Students described Brighouse as a caring, dedicated professor who made philosophy interesting and respected all viewpoints. Reviewers generally recommended the class, noting that lectures were enjoyable and open to diverse perspectives.

Alexander Meehan

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 4.20/5 from 5 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 — Fall 2024: 3.29 GPA, 60.3% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.63 GPA, 82.8% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Marcos Picchio

Marcos Picchio taught this course with a friendly, easygoing style that made lectures enjoyable. Students found the workload manageable, consisting of three papers and two presentations.

AARON YARMEL is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ALEXANDER MEEHAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

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

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

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

GREGORY NIRSHBERG is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JASON LEARDI is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JONATHON VANDENHOMBERGH is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KEVIN DEWAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

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

MARCOS PICCHIO is recorded teaching in Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RUSS SHAFER-LANDAU is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STEPHANIE SHEINTUL is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2021. 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.

Section	Mode	Enrolled / capacity
LEC 001	Classroom Instruction	0 / 69
LEC 093	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 002	Classroom Instruction	0 / 69
DIS 313	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 311	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 091	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 092	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 003	Classroom Instruction	0 / 69
DIS 312	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 321	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 322	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 323	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 094	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 331	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 332	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 333	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23

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

Meeting source records

Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Harry Brighouse

Harry Brighouse taught an engaging class where lectures felt like discussions and students did most of the talking. The environment respected all viewpoints, which the reviewer found highly appealing.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.78 GPA, 89.4% A/AB (n=263 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.73 GPA, 88.1% A/AB (n=311 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.81 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=272 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Harry Brighouse

The course involved two exams, two essays, and weekly discussion posts. One student noted it was not an easy A class, while another found the overall difficulty manageable.

Past student reviews · Harry Brighouse

One student described Brighouse as a caring professor who made a real effort to get to know them and help them grow academically. They felt they were truly learning in his classes.

Topics

Abortion, euthanasia, punishment, property, politics, sex, nuclear disarmament, and world hunger

Skills

Describing key moral debates with clarity and precision
Explaining philosophical positions on contemporary moral debates

Grades

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 · 0.11 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 341 · Spring 2027

Contemporary Moral Issues

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": "1274:736:014696",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 341",
    "course_uid": "course_eea85533574086c8566255b9",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "014696",
    "source_subject_id": "736",
    "title": "Contemporary Moral Issues",
    "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

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 Download part 2

Model & dataset provenance

{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "8d2067f80b9c380d53c64060cc298bbdb79af40c3579cc8d408e6721ae5d0ab6",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}

Contemporary Moral Issues

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

Grade history

Prerequisites

Professors

Harry Brighouse

Alexander Meehan

Calendar & sections

Student experience

the class

difficulty & workload

Topics

Skills

Grades

Spring 2027 · Projected

Grades over time

Where this course fits relative to UW–Madison

Sources & history

Catalog & offerings

Student reviews

Grade history

Where this course fits relative to