Public discourse is drenched in moral judgements. Yet science raises the question whether human behaviour can be judged morally at all. So what is it? This module explores the foundations of human moral behaviour and asks questions such as: Does morality rely on religion? How does morality relate to law? Is there a rational basis to morality? What is good? What is evil? Are we free or determined? Should we always follow our conscience? Are we responsible for others? – Questions are explored at length in lectures and, with the help of some classic texts, discussed in seminars. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own thoughts through a portfolio of problem-based essays.

• demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of some classic theories and debates on the foundations of ethics
• demonstrate an ability to read and critically discuss classic and contemporary texts on ethical topics

Teaching will be through lectures and seminars. Each seminar will involve the discussion of a particular text related to a problem raised in the previous lecture. Students are expected to read these texts in advance and to make short presentations in the seminars commenting on them. Readings will be made available electronically on learning central. In addition students are encouraged to use library books and journal articles (electronic and hard-copy) as listed in the course bibliography. There will also be additional handouts with additional information (summaries of lectures, glossaries of new or difficult terminology, background information on ethical thinkers or classic or current problems, and literature).

This module does not offer any fieldwork, clinical placements, research or other learning opportunities, and no images, soundrecordings or videorecordings (or any other multimedia resources) will be used in this module.

Intellectual Skills

• Ability to analyse and critically assess arguments
• Ability to interpret and analyse texts
• Ability to judge and reach conclusions from analysis
• Ability to formulate arguments from one’s own thinking
• Ability to relate one’s own thinking to a wider discourse

Subject Specific Skills

• Ability to relate ethical thinking to the study of religion
• Ability to analyse and discuss philosophical and theological texts on ethics
• Ability to understand and participate in discourse on ethics

Transferable and Employability Skills

• Ability to analyse and formulate arguments
• Ability to read, analyse and interpret texts
• Ability to communicate clearly in writing
• Ability to present logically structured arguments
• Ability to form one’s own views and express them clearly
• Ability to participate effectively in group-based discussions
• Ability to complete tasks in a professional manner

The module is summatively assessed by a portfolio of two essays of no more than 2,000 words. A full draft of one of the essays will be formatively assessed in the second half of the autumn semester. Students are encouraged to book individual appointments with the module tutor to receive oral feedback. – The essays are problem-based and relating to topics discussed in the lectures and to texts discussed in the seminars. For each essay topic there is an additional brief reading list to supplement the course reading. – The assessment is guided by the criteria which are in force for the relevant programme of study (BA Religious and Theological Studies). There are otherwise no academic or competence standards that may limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for disabled students.

The opportunity for reassessment in this module

Students are allowed to re-submit any individual failed essay once. The mark for each individual re-submission will be capped at 40%.

Ubiquity of moral judgement in public discourse and personal conduct; religion and ethics; non-cognitive ethical theories; cognitive ethical theories; ethics and law (deontological ethics); the concept of freedom; good and evil; ethics of conviction vs. ethics of responsibility; personalistic ethics; values; conscience; justice; plus readings in Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume, Smith, Kant, Jonas, Rawls and Sen. – Essay topics are set within these parameters.

[Listed in the order in which the course is going to progress]

Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, Oxford 2009 [ordered]; I 1-5; VIII; IX

Kant, I., Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Oxford 2002 [B2766.A4.E6.Z9]; Part I

Rawls, J., A Theory of Justice, Oxford 1999 [JC578.R2]; various chapters

Kant, I., Critique of Practical Reason, Cambridge 1997 [B2773.E5.G7]; various chapters

Kant, I., Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, New York 1960 [B2791.E6.G7]

Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, London 1991 [PA3893.R3.L2]; I 6

Aristotle, The Politics, Cambridge 1996 [JC71.A4.E9]; I 1-2

Hume, D., A Treatise on Human Nature, Oxford 1978 [B1485.H8]; II 3.3; III 1.1-2

Moore, G. E., Principia Ethica, Cambridge 1993 [B1647.M73.P7]; various paragraphs

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Cambridge 1981 [BX1749.T5]; I II 6; II II 25; and various others

Gensler, H. J., Spurgin, E. W., Swindal, J. (eds), Ethics: Contemporary Readings, London 2004 [BJ1012.E8]; various chapters

Aquinas, Disputed Questions on Virtue, Cambridge 2005 [BJ255.T4] ; various paragraphs

Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics, Books I, II, and VIII, Oxford 2005 [B422.A5.W6]; VIII

Sen, A., The Idea of Justice, London 2009 [Aberconway, 320.011 SEN]; various chapters

Smith, A., The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Cambridge 2002 [BJ1005.S6]; various chapters

Copp, D., The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, Oxford 2006 [BJ1012.O9]; various chapters

[Listed in alphabetical order]

Adams, R., Finite and Infinite Goods, New York 1999 [online access]

Annas, J., The Morality of Happiness, Oxford 1995 [online access]

Anscombe, G. E. M., “Modern Moral Philosophy,” in Id., The Collected Philosophical Papers 3, Minneapolis 1981, 26-42 [B1618.B68.F81]

Anscombe, G. E. M., Intention, Oxford 1957 [BC199.I5.A6]

Apel, K.-O., Ethics and the Theory of Rationality, London 1996 [B3199.A63.E5]

Attfield, R., A Theory of Value and Obligation, London 1987 [BJ1012.A8]

Attfield, R., Environmental Ethics, Cambridge 2014 [GF80.A8]

Axelrod, R., The Evolution of Cooperation, London 1990 [Aberconway: Main Collection: 302.14 A]

Ayer, A.J., Language, Truth and Logic, London 2001 [B1618.A93.L2] (Chapter on Ethics)

Bentham, J., An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Oxford 2005 [B1574.B3.F68]

Bok, H., Freedom and Responsibility, Princeton, NJ 1998 [to be ordered]

Braybrooke, D., Studies in Moral Philosophy, London 1968 [BJ21.R3]

Cohen, G. A., Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality, Cambridge 1995 [JC575.C6]

Cudworth, R., A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, Cambridge 1996 [online access]

Dancy, J., Ethics without Principles, Oxford 2004 [BJ1012.D2]

Dworkin, R., Taking Rights Seriously, London 2000 [JC571.D9]

Evensky, J., Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy, Cambridge 2005 [online access]

Gauthier, D., Morals by Agreement, Oxford 1986 [BJ1012.G2]

Gill, R. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics, Cambridge 2001 [BJ1251.C2]

Foot, Ph., Natural Goodness, Oxford 2001 [BJ1521.F6]

Foot, Ph., Virtues and Vices and Other Essays in Moral Philosophy, Oxford 2002 [BJ1521.F6]

Habermas, J., Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, Cambridge 1990 [BJ1114.H2] (chapter on discourse ethics)

Hare, J. E., The Moral Gap: Kantian Ethics, Human Limits, and God’s Assistance, Oxford 1996 [BJ1251.H2]

Hare, R. M., The Language of Morals, Oxford 1952 [BJ1025.H2]

Hare, R. M., Moral Thinking, Oxford 1981 [BJ1012.H2]

Harman, G., The Nature of Morality, New York 1977 [BJ37.H2]

Hill, Th. E. (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Kant’s Ethics, Chichester 2009 [B2799.E8.B5]

Hoffman, M. L., Empathy and Moral Development, Cambridge 2000 [online access]

Honderich, T., A Theory of Determinism, 2 vols., Oxford 1988 [B105.D47.H6]

Hutchinson, B., G. E. Moore’s Ethical Theory, Cambridge 2001 [B1647.M74.H8]

Inwagen, P. van, An Essay on Free Will, Oxford 1983 [BJ1461.V2]

Jonas, H., The Imperative of Responsibility, London 1984 [BJ1451.J6]

Joyce, R., The Myth of Morality, Cambridge 2001 [BJ1012.J6]

Kagan, Sh., The Limits of Morality, Oxford 1989 [BJ1012.K2]

Kenny, A., Will, Freedom and Power, Oxford 1975 [BJ1461.K3]

Korsgaard, Chr., The Sources of Normativity, Cambridge 1996 [BJ1458.3.K6]

MacIntyre, A., After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, London 2007 [BJ1012.M2]

MacIntyre, A., Whose Justice? Which Rationality? London 1988 [B105.J8.M2]

Mackie, J. L., Ethics. Inventing Right and Wrong, Harmondsworth 1977 [BJ1012.M2]

Mill, J. St., Utilitarianism, Harmondsworth 1987 [B1602.A5.F87]

Nagel, Th., The View from Nowhere, Oxford [BD220.N2]

Neusner, J., Chilton, B. (eds), The Golden Rule: The Ethics of Reciprocity in World Religions, London 2008 [to be ordered]

Parfit, D., Reasons and Persons, Oxford 1984 [BJ1012.P2]

Paton, H. J., The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy, London 1963 [B2799.E8.P2]

Pink, Th., Stone, M. (eds), The Will and Human Action, London 2004 [B105.A35.W4]

Quinn, Ph. L., Divine Commands and Moral Requirements, Oxford 1978 [BJ1188.Q8]

Regan, D., Utilitarianism and Cooperation, Oxford 1980 [B843.R3]

Ross, W. D., The Right and the Good, Oxford 1930 [BJ1411.R6]

Scanlon, T., What We Owe to Each Other, Cambridge, MA 1998 [BJ1411.S2]

Scheler, M., Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values, Evanston 1973 [B3329.S48]

Scheler, M., The Nature of Sympathy, Hamden 1970 [B3329.S48]

Schweiker, W. (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Religious Ethics, London 2005 [online access]

Searle, J. R., Rationality in Action, Cambridge, MA 2001 [BC177.S3]

Searle, J. R., “How to Derive ‘Ought’ from ‘Is’,” in: The Philosophical Review 73 (1964), 43-58

Singer, P., Animal Liberation, London 1976 [HV4708.S4]

Slote, M. A., Common-Sense Morality and Consequentialism, London 1985 [BJ1012.S5]

Stevenson, Ch., “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms,” in: Mind 46 (1937), 14-31

Stocker, M., “The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories,” in: Journal of Philosophy 73 (1976), 453-466

Strawson, P. F., “Ethical Intuitionism,” in: Philosophy 24 (1949), 23-33

Stump, E., “Sanctification, Hardness of the Heart, and Frankfurt’s Concept of Free Will,” in: Journal of Philosophy 85 (1988), 395-412

Taylor, Ch., Sources of the Self, Cambridge, MA 1989 [BD236.T2]

Taylor, P. W., Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics, Princeton, NJ 1986 [GF80.T2]

Tugendhat, E., Self-Consciousness and Self-Determination, Cambridge, MA 1986 [BD450.T8]

Walzer, M., Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality, Oxford 1983 [HM276.W2]

Williams, B., Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, London 2011 [BJ1012.W4]

Williams, B., Morality: An Introduction to Ethics, Cambridge 1993 [BJ1012.W4]

Wittgenstein, L., “A Lecture on Ethics,” in: Philosophical Review 74 (1965) 3-12

Wong, D., Moral Relativity, Berkeley 1984 [BJ1012.W6]

Wood, A. W., Kant’s Ethical Thought, Cambridge 1999 [B2799.E8.W6]

Wright, G. H. von, Norm and Action: A Logical Enquiry, London 1963 [BC199.N6.W7]