Ethics
The purpose of this subject is to enable you to come to grips with some questions which exercise many people, philosophers and non-philosophers alike. How should we decide what is best to do, and how best to lead our lives? Are our value judgments on these and other matters objective or do they merely reflect our subjective preferences and viewpoints? Are we in fact free to make these choices, or have our decisions already been determined by antecedent features of our environment and genetic endowment? In considering these issues you will examine a variety of ethical concepts, such as those of justice, rights, equality, virtue, and happiness, which are widely used in moral and political argument. There is also opportunity to discuss some applied ethical issues. Knowledge of major historical thinkers, e.g. Aristotle and Hume and Kant, will be encouraged, but not required in the examination.
John Mackie, Ethics (Penguin), chs. 1-2.
Not all courses and papers are available in every year. The authoritative information about courses and papers can be found in the University's Examination Decrees and Regulations, published with changes each October; the version published in the October a student begins a course will be authoritative for the examinations which that student takes at the end of the course.
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November 10, 2008.
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