Ethics for life considers the questions which are of practical concern to all humans who want to live well with themselves and others. Questions such as: What is the right thing to do? How should I live? Who is a good person? What responsibilities do I have to others in my own community and the global-village. The course takes both a practical and theoretic approach; we will discuss issues of both a personal and topical nature. The course presents some of the great thinkers of philosophical history on these issues and also new trends in defining what we mean by the terms ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’. The universal questions are as old as human history but contemporary ethics must also deal with a whole range of new issues, such as: global terrorism; media Ethics; the ethics of spying; the environmental debate.
- Introduction: Firstly we need to define what the terms ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’ mean both in their contemporary usage and in philosophical theory. We will then discuss some ways of approaching a methodology of ethics: Can you test an ethical theory to see if it works?
- “O know! Not the trolley problem again: The case for and against thought experiments in Ethical theory.
- Evolution and Morality. The limits of evolutionary ethics.
- Media Ethics: ‘Trust me’ I’m a friend’: The Ethics of Interviewing. Ethics of Spying: The foundations of Intelligence gathering. The case for moral intuitionism: can you engage in any moral discussion without firstly drawing on some moral intuition?
- The current state of affairs: What’s new and what’s not. Ethics after the Information Revolution.
- Is there a Postmodern Ethics? Is there an ethics after Postmodernism?
- New Trends in ‘Virtue Ethics’. What makes a person a ‘good person’ or a ‘bad person’? Ethics and the Quest for Wisdom. Some new writing on the nature of ‘evil Some new writing on the nature of ‘evil
- Thomas Negel on ‘moral luck’ and other problematic issues.
- Some issues in applied ethics. Human enhancement: cognitive enhancement; mood and personality enhancement; Is there a case for drugs in sport?
- Ethical conflicts in psychology.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Understanding of the key concepts in the development of ethics to the contemporary period
- Read and discussed extracts from significant philosophers on important ethical issues.
- Apply ethical theories and ideas to their personal lives and contemporary issues.
- Further their interest in practical and philosophical ethics through the many new internet sites available online.
