Caveat Academy course · Grades 8 to 12

Ethics and Moral Dilemmas

A semester course on reasoning about right and wrong: arguments and intuitions, consequences, duties and rights, character and care, and the dilemmas of school, friendship, the internet, medicine and the environment. Six modules at your own pace, with a check in every lesson and a certificate at the end.

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$19one-time · every device you sign in on
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Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Middle school course library, $79 for 28 items.

6 modules · 18 lessonsabout 13 hours$19

Six modules, eighteen lessons

Each module ends with a practice set that tracks mastery, an explain-it-back prompt, a short written response and a module exam. The final opens when every module is proficient; passing it earns a certificate with a verification code.

  1. Module 1: Thinking about right and wrong

    Distinguish moral, legal and factual claims and analyze a moral argument by its premises, intuitions and fallacies.

    • What ethics studies
    • Arguments, reasons and intuitions
    • Disagreement and relativism
    about 2.1 h

  2. Module 2: Judging by consequences

    Apply utilitarian reasoning, including expected value, and evaluate objections such as the trolley cases and demandingness.

    • Utilitarianism
    • Weighing outcomes
    • Objections and the trolley problem
    about 2.1 h

  3. Module 3: Duties and rights

    Apply Kant's universal law and humanity formulas and compare rights and social contract theories, including the veil of ignorance.

    • Kant and the universal law
    • People as ends, never only means
    • Rights and the social contract
    about 2.1 h

  4. Module 4: Character, care and moral growth

    Explain virtue ethics, care ethics and research on moral development and moral disengagement.

    • Virtue ethics
    • The ethics of care
    • How moral reasoning develops
    about 2.1 h

  5. Module 5: Dilemmas from everyday life

    Analyze everyday dilemmas about honesty, loyalty, partiality and online behavior using more than one theory.

    • Honesty and lying
    • Loyalty, friendship and fairness
    • Ethics online
    about 2.1 h

  6. Module 6: Ethics in the wider world

    Evaluate questions about animals, the environment, medicine and technology and design a reasoned decision with its strongest objection answered.

    • Animals and the environment
    • Medicine and technology
    • Making a decision and defending it
    about 2.1 h

Try it before you start

This is how every lesson works: step through a worked example at your own pace, then answer a check and get the reason right away. Nothing here is saved; the course keeps your progress.

Module 6 · Making a decision and defending it

Worked example: the borrowed car

  1. Decision: your older cousin lent you their car for a test, and you scraped the bumper in a parking lot. No one saw. Do you tell them?

A lesson check from each module

The checks need JavaScript turned on. The course itself works the same way.

What you get

Academics · Middle SchoolAlso for Academics · High School$19 · included with the Academy pass and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A finished semester of ethics: you can separate moral, legal and factual claims, lay out and test an argument, apply utilitarian, Kantian, rights-based, virtue and care reasoning to the same case, explain what moral psychology says about why good people do wrong, and reach and defend a decision on a hard dilemma with its strongest objection answered. Passing the final earns a Caveat certificate of completion.
Who it is for
Students in grades 8 to 12 who like arguing about what is fair, are preparing for a school philosophy or ethics elective, debate or mock trial, or want a clearer way to think through hard choices; homeschool families who want a complete semester unit. The course presents the major theories fairly and does not tell students which one to hold.
Format
An online self-paced course: 6 modules and 18 lessons with worked examples you reveal step by step, 144 practice and exam items (multiple choice, numeric, fill-in and ordering), an explain-it-back prompt and a rubric-checked short response in every module, module exams with one retake, a 24-question final and a certificate with a verification code. About 13 hours in all; works on a phone or a computer.
Access
$19 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the course opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Middle school course library ($79) and the Academics Suite pass ($149), and 1 more bundle. Progress is saved in this browser on this device, and the certificate page lets you download your record.
Where it lives
The Middle School space in Caveat Academics; also listed for the High School space in Caveat Academics (the same course serves the high school Ethics & Moral Dilemmas title).
Support
Access, a receipt, a refund or a correction to the course: team@caveatacademic.com.

How it works

  1. Open the course and start Module 1. Each lesson takes about 25 to 35 minutes; two or three a week finishes the course in about a semester.
  2. Answer the checks as you read. Every answer shows the reason, and a miss links you back to the lesson that covers it.
  3. Finish each module with its practice set and exam. Proficient on every module opens the final; 70 percent passes it.
  4. Print or download your certificate and record from the certificate page.

Start the course

Sources and accuracy

The lessons are original writing by Caveat Academic Services. Facts were checked against these free, open references, which are also good places to read further.

  1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entries on consequentialism, Kant's moral philosophy, virtue ethics, feminist ethics of care and moral relativism: plato.stanford.edu
  2. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entries on ethics, the social contract and moral development: iep.utm.edu
  3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Belmont Report (1979): hhs.gov/ohrp
  4. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The U.S. Public Health Service Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee: cdc.gov/tuskegee
  5. Project Gutenberg, public-domain texts of Mill's Utilitarianism and Kant's Groundwork: gutenberg.org

Ethics and Moral Dilemmas is a self-paced course from Caveat Academic Services. It follows the sequence of a typical one-semester ethics elective but does not replace a school course or award credit. It teaches several theories side by side and takes no side on religious or political questions. Example figures in worked examples are labeled as examples. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.