Please note: there may be some adjustments to the teaching arrangements published in the course catalogue for 2020-21. Given current circumstances related to the Covid-19 pandemic it is anticipated that some usual arrangements for teaching on campus will be modified to ensure the safety and wellbeing of students and staff on campus; further adjustments may also be necessary, or beneficial, during the course of the academic year as national requirements relating to management of the pandemic are revised.

Contemporary Ethics PHIL5065

  • Academic Session: 2022-23
  • School: School of Humanities
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Available to Erasmus Students: Yes

Short Description

This course is concerned with some leading contemporary theories in normative ethics.

Timetable

2 lectures per week for 9 weeks, plus 4 seminars. The course may not run every year. Options running this year are available on MyCampus.

Requirements of Entry

Standard entry to Masters at College level

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Two essays, equally weighted, each with a word limit of 2500 words.

Course Aims

This course aims to:

 

■ introduce students to issues in contemporary normative theory

■ foster an appreciation of the relation between an inquiry into practical moral wisdom and philosophical normative theory.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

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

■ Analyse and critically evaluate recent versions of consequentialism, virtue ethics, and their competitors and variants;

■ Explain and evaluate the bearing of epistemological issues on ethics;

■ Engage critically with recent writers on these issues.

 

Assessment for this course is at Masters Level

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.