Overview

This topic will examine a range of current issues and questions of moral philosophy, including but not limited to: whether or not moral judgments are true; the nature of moral motivation; the role of character or virtue in ethics; and our moral relations with other animals.

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Tuition pattern

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Aims

This topic aims to:

  • Introduce students to key issues in contemporary moral philosophy with a specific focus on issues in meta-ethics and moral psychology
  • Introduce students to some key historical texts in moral philosophy relevant to the issues noted above
  • Help students improve their reasoning skills by helping them to make careful distinctions between issues and pay very close attention to arguments

Learning outcomes

On completion of this topic you will be expected to be able to:
1.
Assess central issues in meta-ethics and moral psychology
2.
Determine ways of dealing with the central issues in meta-ethics and moral psychology
3.
Discuss classic texts in ways which reflect a familiarity with them

Assessments

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Requisites information

Pre-requisites:
Anti-requisites:

Assumed knowledge

Familiarity with the kind of knowledge, conceptual understanding and skill such as can be obtained by completion of at least 9 units of second year undergraduate level topics from the Philosophy major.