Practical Ethics – (M.A.)

The MA in Practical Ethics offers students the opportunity to explore the nature of ethical thinking and how it applies to current issues in life, law and the environment. The MA may be studied either full time over twelve months or part time over twenty four months.

Components of the Course

Full-time candidates take four modules in the first two terms (part-timers, two over the first two terms of each year), covering the following areas.

Ethical Thinking

The module explores the structure of reflecting on ethical matters. According to an influential view, the structure of ethical thinking is simple: we always ought to do what will have the best consequences. Problems only arise in regard to evaluative questions about what is good and in regard to our uncertainty about which consequences will arise from what we do. In this module we will investigate whether departures from this simple model are justified. For example, is the distinction between intending something bad and foreseeing something bad to happen as a consequence of one's action morally relevant? If so, it would show that the goodness of consequences is not all that matters in ethical thought. Another issue is whether a more equal distribution of fewer goods might be preferable to an unequal distribution of more goods. Thus, might doing less good be preferable to doing more good? Is equality a concern that goes beyond goodness? Can the same be said for a concern about people's rights?

Philosophy of Law

The module explores ethical issues in the foundations of law. Is justice simply the will of the powerful or are there correct principles of living in a society which are independent of anyone's will and are founded in our nature as rational and political beings? Is it enough for something being a law that people have developed a habit of obedience to someone's commands or do they, in addition, have to accept a rule that give those who exercise power the authority to do so? If legal facts are simply those stated by laws or derivable from such laws,how can there be disputes about legal facts between those who know the law? Is the only proper reason for limiting a person's liberty that his or her act is likely to cause harm to others, or are laws defensible that forbid actions that would only harm the agent him or herself or no one? This module addresses both the relationship between morality and law and the nature and structure of law and legal facts.

Bioethics

The module explores philosophical issues related to life and death. Traditional conceptions of life and death are challenged when new methods of preservation, creation, manipulation and destruction are discovered. There are questions that relate to the beginning of life: Do fertilized eggs have moral status? What role does the absence or presence of their potential to grow into human beings have? And there are questions that relate to the end of life, like when life ends, what deathless exists from life are, and whether one simply can give up one's rights by an act of will. Answers will have to fit with our general understanding of rights and duties. As an individual do you have a duty to preserve any human life the preservation of which is in your power, even if it involves non-trivial costs to yourself? Limited resources make choices of life and death inevitable. Is there a satisfying account that uniquely justifies certain resource allocations? This module will deal with topics like abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and suicide and the discussions of these issues will be informed by a general view of what ethical thinking is and what it might accomplish. accomplish.

Environmental Philosophy

The module explores philosophical issues arising out of reflection on the value of nature. If life is valuable, why should only human life, and not also the life of animals, plants or bacteria, be valuable? How shall one understand claims about the value of life, if one doesn't accept that a world with more living things in it is necessarily better than one with less living things in it? What grounds our claims that an entity is morally relevant and that what is good for it has to be taken into account when we think about what we ought to do? We share features with animals but we also share features with things, after all we are not only animals but also physical objects. Does this aspect of our nature and the fact that we disapprove of wanton destruction of things show that everything is morally relevant and has (some) moral status? Environmental philosophy deals with but goes beyond questions like whether animals have rights, or whether nature is not only instrumentally but also intrinsically valuable. It focuses on our relation to nature and our place in nature as part of it. Its emphasis on our interconnectedness with our surroundings is supposed to have not only ethical but also metaphysical implications and can change the way we see ourselves.

The Seminar in Research Skills

The Seminar in Research Skills is designed to provide students with a grounding in the skills necessary to contribute to contemporary philosophical debates. The seminar is taught in two terms: in the first term, students learn how to analyse and present advanced research papers; in the second term, they acquire the skills necessary for determining and surveying the resources relevant to a particular research topic, and present their research to colleagues

The Dissertation

As an application of the knowledge, skills and experience gained in the previous stages of the course, the Dissertation enables students to produce a sustained piece of critical writing on a topic of their choosing.

In the third term, full-time candidates undertake a 12,000 word Dissertation on a topic in Practical Ethics chosen in consultation with their supervisor for submission in September.

Part-time candidates prepare a 4,000 word project during the Summer term of the first year for submission at the beginning of the following Autumn term, and a 8,000 word project during the Summer term of the second year for submission in the following September. Alternatively, part-time candidates may upgrade their first year 4,000 word dissertation for submission as a 12,000 word dissertation in the September of the second year.

Teaching and Learning Methods

The course is taught by seminars and individual or small group tutorials, permitting students and staff to systematically explore complex issues at the forefront of Practical Ethics.