Module Descriptors
MORALITY AND THE SELF
PHIL50115
Key Facts
Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies
Level 5
15 credits
Contact
Leader: Hugh Burnham
Email: H.D.Burnham@staffs.ac.uk
Hours of Study
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities: 23
Independent Study Hours: 127
Total Learning Hours: 150
Assessment
- PORTFOLIO weighted at 100%
Module Details
Module Additional Assessment Details
A portfolio of written coursework (3 pieces of approximately 1000 words each) submitted at strategic points of the module. [Learning Outcomes 1-3]
Module Indicative Content
The module revolves around some key questions in meta-ethics and normative ethics which are also central to philosophy in general. In doing so it attempts to develop in students an understanding of what is distinctive about morality and to introduce some of the terminology and apparatus used in thought about our ethical behaviour together with some principal ethical theories.
The module will begin by considering issues in meta-ethics, such as: what is the nature of morality? Are some things or actions good in themselves, or are our moral claims no more than subjective expressions of individual taste and preference, perhaps moulded by social and cultural factors? Some views that have sought to ground morality, such as divine command theory, naturalism and moral intuitionism will be considered.
The second part of the module takes up the question of what is required of a moral claim for it to be justified. Students will be introduced to some theories of normative ethics. This part commences with a consideration of Hume?s dismissal of the role of reason in ethics, and then examines how philosophers, important to the tradition, have attempted to build up a conception of morality consistent with that (for example, different varieties of consequentialism). This will be contrasted with a rival conception of morality, starting with Kant and duty based ethics and looking at Ross and some further modern deontological and contractarian theories. In the final section of this part a view is considered that has always been within the tradition ever since Aristotle but which in recent years has emerged and renewed itself as a major ethical theory: virtue ethics.
The final part of the module considers some challenges to the traditional conception of morality. First, feminist ethics has claimed that the conception of morality formulated by the tradition has in fact been constructed from a gendered point of view. Second, many environmentalist ethicists have claimed that our ethics is an anthropomorphic construction. Third, postmodernist theorists have claimed that our supposed objective traditional conceptions of morality have not paid regard to cultural and social difference. The implications of these views for our understanding of morality are considered.
The module will begin by considering issues in meta-ethics, such as: what is the nature of morality? Are some things or actions good in themselves, or are our moral claims no more than subjective expressions of individual taste and preference, perhaps moulded by social and cultural factors? Some views that have sought to ground morality, such as divine command theory, naturalism and moral intuitionism will be considered.
The second part of the module takes up the question of what is required of a moral claim for it to be justified. Students will be introduced to some theories of normative ethics. This part commences with a consideration of Hume?s dismissal of the role of reason in ethics, and then examines how philosophers, important to the tradition, have attempted to build up a conception of morality consistent with that (for example, different varieties of consequentialism). This will be contrasted with a rival conception of morality, starting with Kant and duty based ethics and looking at Ross and some further modern deontological and contractarian theories. In the final section of this part a view is considered that has always been within the tradition ever since Aristotle but which in recent years has emerged and renewed itself as a major ethical theory: virtue ethics.
The final part of the module considers some challenges to the traditional conception of morality. First, feminist ethics has claimed that the conception of morality formulated by the tradition has in fact been constructed from a gendered point of view. Second, many environmentalist ethicists have claimed that our ethics is an anthropomorphic construction. Third, postmodernist theorists have claimed that our supposed objective traditional conceptions of morality have not paid regard to cultural and social difference. The implications of these views for our understanding of morality are considered.
Module Resources
Lecture and adequate seminar rooms.
Module Texts
Cooper, D (ed) Ethics: The Classic Readings, Blackwell 1997
Hudson, W D Modern Moral Philosophy, MacMillan 1983
LaFollette, H (ed) Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, Blackwell 2000
McNaughton D Moral Vision, Blackwell 1988
Norman, R The Moral Philosophers: an Introduction to Ethics, OUP, 2nd ed. 1998
Rachels, J The Elements of Moral Philosophy, McGraw Hill, 3rd ed. 1998
Ross, W.D. The Right and the Good, Hackett, 1988
Sterba, J P (ed) Ethics: The Big Questions, Blackwell 1998
Hudson, W D Modern Moral Philosophy, MacMillan 1983
LaFollette, H (ed) Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, Blackwell 2000
McNaughton D Moral Vision, Blackwell 1988
Norman, R The Moral Philosophers: an Introduction to Ethics, OUP, 2nd ed. 1998
Rachels, J The Elements of Moral Philosophy, McGraw Hill, 3rd ed. 1998
Ross, W.D. The Right and the Good, Hackett, 1988
Sterba, J P (ed) Ethics: The Big Questions, Blackwell 1998
Module Learning Strategies
Teaching and learning will be arranged around a weekly lecture and seminar. Lectures will serve to introduce principal issues and survey positions on them. Seminars will be devoted to close reading of selected short texts and the answering of specific questions on them.