Assessment

Continuous Assessment: 100%

Module Aims

This module explores the human experience of good and evil. Drawing on insights from different disciplines, including theology, law, and philosophy, the module considers how our understanding of good and evil has been shaped by—and in turn shapes—concrete societal challenges such as policy-making, responses to crime and war, and international law. Particular attention is paid to how human experiences and conceptualisations of good and evil have evolved over time and place.

Indicative Syllabus

Understanding the Experience of Good and Evil from the perspective of: classical philosophy; the question of human dignity; moral atheism; the search for meaning as we live together; Christian ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation; the punishment of crime; changing social and legal norms.

Learning Outcomes

• — Show how theology, law, philosophy and other disciplines bear on and employ the concepts of good and evil
• — Describe, compare and contrast different definitions of ‘Good’ and ‘evil'
• — Name key questions and themes appropriate to the theme of good and evil
• — Explain the relationship and distinction between ‘Good’ and God

Bibliography

• — Eagleton, Terry. The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2008.
• — Haynes, Amanda. ‘Broad Definition of Hate Crime Will Have Many Unintended Consequences,’ Irishtimes.ie, 10 Nov 2022.
• — Hopkins-Burke, R. (ed.) An Introduction to Criminological Theory. 4th ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014.
• — Hutchinson, Allan C. Is Eating People Wrong? Great Legal Cases and How They Shaped The World. Cambridge: CUP, 2011.
• — Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. London: Collins, 2014 (first published 1952).
• — O’Connell, Hugh. ‘Ireland’s Gambling Laws Will Soon Change’ in Independent.ie 15 Nov 2022.
• — Steenkamp, Yolande. ‘Of Eden and Nazareth: Stories to Capture the Imagination’, Verbum et Ecclesia [Online] 38/1 (30 June 2017).
• — Wink, Walter, ‘The Myth of Redemptive Violence: Exposing the Roots of Might Makes Right,’ Sojourners 21/3 Apr 1992: 18-21.