philosophy of ethics and professors

[womaninphysics]

So, back when I was a senior in high school I took an ethics course from the philosophy department at UCSC with my friend Elizabeth.  It was a really interesting class and I'm glad I took it.  You look at different ways of forming ethical systems and various arguments for and against those.  For example, in cultural relativism, whatever is morally

Comments

[477150n]

A, I love that there is a journal of happiness studies.

B, I think I'm starting to understand the "make your students miserable on purpose" mentality. I think it's a misplaced response to the desire to acclimate students to working hard, which is important for future success. But I agree that this attitude is probably counterproductive and not very ethical, for all the reasons you said. Sometimes I think I'd get more done if my advisor were a little harder on me, but probably I'd just work less efficiently and then burn out.

[womaninphysics]

I'm much more bitter about it. I think of it more as an "I was miserable and I survived, now it's your turn", kind of like Jackson, boot camp for physicists. Or maybe that's just how they think advisers should be since that's how their adviser was?