What exactly is ‘ethical’ or ‘moral’? Is it happiness, fairness, understanding, tradition, freedom, love or God’s will? How do we know? By thinking, feeling, nature, evolution, religion, upbringing or culture? And why should we care? Because it is rational, freely chosen or essential to who we are? Or is it something we could do without? On this course, we will study some of the most important philosophical answers to these questions, from Aristotle’s theory of virtue as human flourishing and Kant’s modern ethics of autonomy and equality, to other philosophers’ attempts to reformulate these fundamental ideas in terms of mutual recognition (Hegel), individuality (Mill), and immoralism (Nietzsche). We will also focus on how these ideas and arguments can illuminate and be illuminated by concrete issues in ethics, considering particularly issues that arise in politics – such as free speech, poverty, abortion, and war – and in business – such as advertising, the financial crisis, food, and sweatshops. Throughout we will give special emphasis to your own ethical views, and your ability to discuss, reflect on and defend them in discussion.

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• explain, evaluate, and apply the ethical concepts and arguments presented in primary texts;

• analyze the ethics of specific political and business issues;

• develop your own reasoned views of these concepts, arguments, and issues;

• make appropriate use of secondary academic resources and do guided research work;

A (95%+) and A- (90-94%) work is relatively rare, expected to stand out from the work of other students and:

directly addresses the question or problem raised, provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information, critically evaluates concepts and theory, relates theory to practice, reflects the student’s own argument and is not just a repetition of standard lecture and reference material, is very accurate, has an element of novelty if not originality, provides evidence of reading beyond the required reading and displays an awareness of methodological concerns and displays an awareness of the limitations of current knowledge.

B+ (87-89%) and B (83-86%) grades indicate a highly competent level of performance and:

directly addresses the question or problem raised, provides a coherent argument drawing on relevant information, shows some ability to evaluate concepts and theory and to relate theory to practice, reflects the student’s own argument and is not just a repetition of standard lecture and reference material, does not suffer from any major errors or omissions, provides evidence of reading beyond the required reading and displays an awareness of other approaches to the problem area.

B- (80-82%) or C+ (77-79%) work is an acceptable level of performance and:

addresses the question but provides only a basic outline of relevant arguments and evidence along the lines offered in the lectures and referenced readings, gives answers that are clear but limited and with some minor omissions and inaccuracies, although no major errors. 

C (73-76%) or C- (70-72%) work demonstrates some knowledge and an element of understanding, but is weak and:

points made in the answer are not always well supported by argument and evidence, relevant points have been omitted from the answer, there are some errors in the answer, parts of the question remain unanswered and answers may be unduly brief and possibly in note form. 

D+ (67-69%), D (63-66%) or D- (60-62%) work does just enough to persuade the instructor that they should not be failed and:

answers lack a coherent grasp of the problems and issues raised in the question, important information has been omitted from the answers and irrelevant points have been included and answers are far too brief. 

Fail (below 60%) work fails to convince the instructor that students have benefited from academic study and:

fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question, reveals fundamental misunderstanding of the subject matter and most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.

First week: Some introductory issues and concepts

1.            Introduction to the course: Personal ethics

2.            Poverty and consequences   

3.            Reproduction and autonomy

4.            Love and character  

Second week: Aristotle and Kant

1.            Aristotle on virtue as human excellence

2.            Justice and friendship in Aristotle

3.            Kant’s formulas of duty

4.            Kant and evil

Third week: Reformulating ethics

1.            Hegel on recognition and misrecognition

2.            Mill’s utilitarianism

3.            Nietzsche against morality

4.            Preparation of first assignment                                

Fourth week: Political ethics

1.            Merit and taxation               

2.            War and terrorism

3.            Free speech and feminism    

4.            Media power

Fifth week: Business ethics

1.            Financial crisis

2.            Green business

3.            Food           

4.            Preparation of second assignment