Assessment

1 essay worth 40%, final exam worth 60%

Module Aims

General Ethics, presenting a comparative study of virtue ethics, Kantianism and Utilitarianism. 1.Virtue ethics focuses on the whole person, and stresses the kind of person one wants to be, rather than engaging in an examination of the action in question, or its implications. Law (natural or man-made) is seen in the light of human flourishing. 2.Kantianism: Kant’s examination of the ethical phenomenon focused on duty and law, and tried to answer the ethical question of each action’s rightness or wrongness in the light of the autonomous lawgiver, the moral subject. 3.Utilitarianism: what makes an action right is that it brings about better consequences than any of its alternatives does. There is no point in discussing ‘natural rights’ or ‘natural law’ independently of such consequences, such as pain and pleasure.

Learning Outcomes

• — 1. Demonstrate knowledge of the main branches of ethical theory
• — 2. Explain the origins and progress of the theories of ethics studied.
• — 3. Show what question each of the theories studied is trying to answer about moral behaviour.
• — 4. Engage with original texts and sources of these ethical theories.
• — 5. Discuss the role of the underlying philosophy of being and of the person, in each of the ethical theories studied.
• — 6. Explain how the theories mentioned relate to one another both in terms of theory and practical applications.