PHIL511 - Philosophy and the Moral Life

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Teaching organisation

This unit will be delivered in online mode using an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in situations similar to their current or future professions. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit introduces students to key debates and theories in the contemporary field of ethics (or moral philosophy). It provides a critical introduction to some of the key ethical theories developed in the history of philosophy and explores how these theories interact with accounts of human nature, community, and the good life. Through the frequent use of current examples or case studies of current ethical problems and debates, students are enabled to engage with a variety of approaches, and to develop reasoned positions of their own. The unit aims to strengthen students’ critical thinking and philosophical acumen, and to provide them with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage constructively and critically in important debates.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Demonstrate comprehension of some central problems and theories in metaethics and normative ethics (GA5, GA9)

LO2 - Critically analyse these debates and theories, noting ways in which theoretical reflection in ethics can be applied in practical situations (GA3, GA4, GA8)

LO3 - Demonstrate appropriate skills in philosophical research, and clear use of philosophically effective English expression (GA5, GA9)

Graduate attributes

GA3 - Apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - Think critically and reflectively

GA5 - Demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession

GA8 - Locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information

GA9 - Demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media

Content

Topics will include:

• Ethics, happiness and the good life
• Issues in metaethics such as:
• The concept of ethical realism
• Other accounts of moral disagreement: scepticism, cultural relativism, subjectivism and ethical realism
• The problem of the nature of ethics: egoism, rationalism, intuitivism
• Ethics and religion
• Other topics may include: the problem of moral luck; and issues in moral psychology concerning freedom, emotion, conscience and intentions.
• Models of normative ethics:
• Utilitarianism and other forms of consequentialism;
• Deontological ethics;
• Virtue ethics;
• Natural Law Approaches;
• Other models may include contractarianism; ethics of care.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

ACU Online

This unit will be delivered in online mode using an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in situations similar to their future professions. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy for this unit is designed to facilitate broad engagement across the topics covered, while also requiring deeper engagement with one of the unit topics in particular. The online quiz is designed to check that students have a solid working understanding of key items of terminology pertaining to philosophical ethics, and/or major theories of normative ethics. The short written task that follows requires students to explicate and analyse a key text in this field, thereby applying their understanding of terms and theories, while also developing and demonstrating critical analytical skills. Finally, the research essay provides students with the opportunity to undertake sustained philosophical reading and research, culminating in an extended piece of formal writing that examines their capacity to develop a coherent argument in response to an important philosophical question.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Finnis, J. (1991). Moral Absolutes: Tradition, Revision and Truth. Washington: Catholic University of America Press.

de Lazari-Radek, K and P. Singer. (2017). Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Eberl, J. (2006). Thomistic Principles and Bioethics. Florence: Taylor & Francis.

Hughes, G. (2013). The Routledge Guidebook to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. London: Routledge.

LaFollette, H. (ed) (2013). The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.

MacIntyre, A. (1998). A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the 20th Century. London: Routledge.

Ross, W.D. (2002). The Right and the Good. Oxford: Clarendon.

Shafer-Landau, R. (2020). The Fundamentals of Ethics. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Stratton-Lake, P. (2000). Kant, Duty and Moral Worth. London: Routledge.

van Zyl, L. (2018). Virtue Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction. London: Routledge.