BASS Social Anthropology and Sociology / Course details

This course unit will examine some hard moral questions: Is it ever right to abort a foetus? Are we ever morally responsible for anything we do? Is it ever right to torture the innocent? Is morality relative to culture? By examining moral conundrums raised in applied ethics, normative ethics and metaethics, this course unit will provide an introduction to some central themes in moral philosophy.

The course aims to:

• introduce philosophical thinking about moral phenomena;
• present and clarify the basic terminology employed in exploring questions of morality;
• discuss some of the difficult issues raised in applied ethics.

There will be a mixture of lectures and tutorials.

Please note the information in scheduled activity hours are only a guidance and may change.

• knowledge and understanding of some of the positions and arguments in debates within applied ethics;
• knowledge and understanding of some key arguments and objections to consequentialism and how this position contrasts to other normative ethical views;
• knowledge and understanding of some of the positions and arguments in debates within meta-ethics.

• an ability to identify some major standpoints in ethical theory;  
• an ability to articulate cogent arguments on applied moral issues;  
• an ability to write concisely, relevantly and analytically about the moral issues discussed in the course.

• an ability to identify some major standpoints in ethical theory;  
• an ability to articulate cogent arguments on applied moral issues;  
• an ability to write concisely, relevantly and analytically about the moral issues discussed in the course.

• undertake independent research and apply theoretical knowledge to complex issues;
• develop the ability to listen carefully and constructively to views that differ from one’s own perspective;

Essay    50% 

Essay    50%

Students will complete two written assignments of 1500 words both worth 50%

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate fora is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Blackboard; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

The following reading list is indicative, and students are not required to read all of the publications listed.

Oderberg, D. Applied Ethics, (Blackwell, 2000) chapters 1-2.
Gover, J. Utilitarianism and its Critics (Macmillian, New York, 1990).
LaFollette, H. (ed.) The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, (Blackwell 2000), chapter 1- 2 & 9-12