History of Moral and Political Philosophy PHIL4017

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Humanities
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
  • Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No
  • Curriculum For Life: No

Short Description

This course will introduce students to the close study of some major texts in the history of moral and political philosophy. The course will contextualise these texts in terms of the major intellectual and philosophical movements of their time.

Timetable

16x1 hr lectures, 4x1 hr seminars over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the senior honours options in Philosophy. It may not run every year. Options running this year are available on MyCampus

Requirements of Entry

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into Philosophy, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Portfolio (1500 words)- 40%

Essay (2000 words) - 40%

Reading comprehension exercise - 20%

Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? Not applicable for Honours courses

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

Course Aims

This course aims to:

■ introduce students to historical attempts to provide a theory of the content and normativity of morality by considering a number of historically significant attempts to provide such a theory; 

■ appreciate how moral philosophy has developed; 

■ engage with significant theses in the history of moral philosophy. 

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

 

■ Critically evaluate two or more historically influential moral theories in the history of western philosophy;

■ Understand and explain the main theses from historical texts in ethics and political philosophy;

■ Interpret texts in relation to their historical contexts;

■ Reconstruct and evaluate arguments from historical texts; 

■ Apply a moral theory to a practical case

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.