Module Directory

This module investigates one of the most influential modern theories of ethics, Kant`s moral philosophy. While students may have had the chance to study some aspects of Kant`s view before, this term will be devoted to examining its details and considering the most important criticisms lodged against it.

We will look at the philosophy of action and views of human freedom that underpin the Kantian ethical outlook, as well as its practical requirements, its strategies of justification, and the key objections to the Kantian ethical project as posed by consequentialism and virtue ethics. The main focus will be on a close reading of the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals [1785], but other texts by Kant will also be considered.

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce students to main problems of contemporary metaethics.


• To analyse the differences and connections between metaethics, normative ethics and other registers of moral thinking.


• To familiarise students with the main theories of metaethics, and to analyse their strenghts and weaknesses.


• To introduce students to the work of contemporary moral philosophers.


• To analyse the connections between metaethics and other areas of philosophy (such as epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and moral psychology).


• To evaluate the prospects and limits of metaethics as a mode of moral thinking.


• To assess the extent to which metaethics can account for certain crucial aspects of moral experience.

Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.


2. Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.


3. Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.


4. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.


5. Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.


6. Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.


7. Think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches.


8. Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.


9. Think critically and constructively.

Incoming Study Abroad students must have already taken an introductory module in Philosophy at their home institution.

This is a module in ethical theory rather than practical ethics. That is, it takes up theoretical questions about the status and justification of morality rather than philosophical issues raised by practical moral problems.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 1-hour lecture per week.
• One 1-hour class per week devoted to working together with assigned texts.
• One 1-hour workshop on a wider theme.

Week 21 is Reading Week.