Module Descriptors
MORALITY AND THE SELF L6
PHIL60148
Key Facts
Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies
Level 6
15 credits
Hours of Study
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities: 24
Independent Study Hours: 126
Total Learning Hours: 150
Assessment
- ASSIGNMENT weighted at 30%
- COURSEWORK -ESSAY weighted at 70%
Module Details
Module Resources
Room, library, IT facilities.
The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available(where relevant) to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook.
The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available(where relevant) to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook.
Module Indicative Content
This module centres on key questions in meta-ethics and normative ethics, and their relations to conceptions of the self or subjective agency. In doing so it attempts to develop in students an understanding of what is distinctive about moral thought and reasoning, to study key terms, arguments and forms of analysis, and to indicate reciprocal implications for philosophies of subjectivity.
The first part of the module considers meta-ethics: 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 our preferences or emotional attachments? The second, longer, part of the module surveys normative theories of ethics, including some or all of the following: Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill. The final part of the module considers several more recent European challenges to the key ideas of morality itself, such those challenges issued by Nietzsche, Sartre and Levinas.
The first part of the module considers meta-ethics: 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 our preferences or emotional attachments? The second, longer, part of the module surveys normative theories of ethics, including some or all of the following: Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill. The final part of the module considers several more recent European challenges to the key ideas of morality itself, such those challenges issued by Nietzsche, Sartre and Levinas.
Module Learning Strategies
The module runs on a lecture and seminar (or equivalently scheduled workshop) basis. Lectures serve to introduce material in context, point out key themes and raise penetrating questions for individual study or group discussion. Seminars will be devoted to close reading and analysis of texts, and a discussion of the implications of theories for ethics and for conceptions of subjectivity.
Module Texts
Aristotle. (2000). Nicomachean Ethics. Trans., Irwin. Hackett.
Cooper, D. (ed). (1997). Ethics: The Classic Readings. Blackwell.
Kant, I. (2002). Critique of Practical Reason. Trans., Pluhar. Hackett.
LaFollette, H (ed) (2000) Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, Blackwell.
Nietzsche, F (2005). Twilight of the Idols. Ed., Ridley. Trans., Norman. Cambridge
Cooper, D. (ed). (1997). Ethics: The Classic Readings. Blackwell.
Kant, I. (2002). Critique of Practical Reason. Trans., Pluhar. Hackett.
LaFollette, H (ed) (2000) Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, Blackwell.
Nietzsche, F (2005). Twilight of the Idols. Ed., Ridley. Trans., Norman. Cambridge
Module Additional Assessment Details
70% by a 2600 word comparative essay concerning two topics from the second and third parts of the module. (1, 2, 3)
30% by a 1400 word analysis assignment on one of the topics in the first weeks of the module. (1, 3)
30% by a 1400 word analysis assignment on one of the topics in the first weeks of the module. (1, 3)