PH214     
Philosophy, Morals and Politics

This information is for the 2024/25 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr Daniel Guillery

Availability

This course is available on the BSc in Philosophy and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with a Year Abroad) and BSc in Politics and Philosophy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Course content

The course will cover key topics in moral and political philosophy.

The course addresses questions such as the following (indicative examples only; precise content varies from year to year): What sacrifices are we required to make for the sake of others? Does it make a moral difference that a person is less well off than she could have been? Is it permissible to cause harm to others in order to prevent greater harm? Can it benefit or harm people to bring them into existence? Do individual actions make a difference to large-scale problems such as climate change and global inequality? What moral obligations do we have to obey the law? When, and how, can we be justified in resisting injustice? When we tax the rich to give to the poor are we restricting freedom, enhancing it or redistributing it? Can the cultural circumstances in which we grow up absolve us of blame for bad beliefs? Is private property in land justified? Do moral questions have objectively correct answers? Can the members of one culture legitimately criticise the moral norms of another culture? Do states act morally permissibly in excluding would-be immigrants from their territory? What kind of rights, if any, are grounded in the value of culture? How should we rectify historical wrongs?

Topics in other areas of moral and political philosophy may also be covered.

Teaching

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the AT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the WT.

Formative coursework

Students will be expected to produce 2 essays in the AT and WT.

Indicative reading

Thomson, J.J. ‘Self-Defense’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 20 (1991)

Otsuka, M. ‘Killing the Innocent in Self-Defense’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 23 (1994)

Quinn, W. ‘Actions, Intentions and Consequences: The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing’, The Philosophical Review 98 (1989)

Øverland, G. ‘Moral Obstacles: An Alternative to the Doctrine of Double Effect’, Ethics 124 (2014)

Parry, J. ‘Defensive Harm, Consent, and Intervention’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 43 (2017)

Geoff Sayre-McCord, 'Metaethics', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/metaethics/>

Matthew Chrisman, What is this thing called Metaethics?

Michael Smith, The Moral Problem;

J.L. Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong

Nozick, R. Anarchy, State and Utopia

Locke, J. Second Treatise of Government

Cohen, G. A., 'Nozick on Appropriation', New Left Review, no. 150 (1985)

Jefferson, T., Letter to James Madison (1789)

Boxill, B., 'Black Reparations', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2015)

Assessment

Exam (45%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.
Essay (45%, 2000 words) in the WT.
Class participation (10%).

Key facts

Department: Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method

Total students 2023/24: 116

Average class size 2023/24: 16

Capped 2023/24: No

Value: One Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Course selection videos

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.

Personal development skills

  • Self-management
  • Team working
  • Problem solving
  • Application of information skills
  • Communication
  • Specialist skills