LPHIL7259 Advanced Topics in Ethics and Political Theory

Course Summary

This course offers students the opportunity to study fundamental topics in ethics and political theory, exploring the ways in which values, rules, institutions and social systems shape our lives and actions – including how developments in AI and technology might contribute to this. With a focus on the application of philosophical thinking to the complexities of the social world, students will encounter questions such as: How should society be best organised to secure a good life for all? How far do the boundaries of our moral responsibility extend? What do we owe animals and the environment? How can we best repair inequality, historical injustice and oppression? Is there such a thing as progress in human history? What kinds of ethical and political questions do new developments in technology, including AI, raise and how should these be addressed? Issues such as these and more (with topics covered varying from year to year) will be explored through texts from the global history of philosophy and through contemporary discussions.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject-Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and a range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, and discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include:

• Lectures: Instructor-led classes.
• Seminars/workshops: Interactive sessions on project management principles, focused on applying theoretical concepts.
• Experiential Learning, which may include simulations and role-playing for hands-on experience, or guest speakers for insight from professionals.
• Online Resources: Flexible learning with additional study materials.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups.

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150, including a minimum of 16.5 scheduled hours.

Employability Skills

The metaphysics course cultivates skills that are employable across a range of sectors. These include the abilities to:

• Work independently, creatively, and to deadlines.
• Conduct research and explore relevant existing knowledge.
• Analyse, contextualise, and interpret complex ideas and materials.
• Synthesise and evaluate information against a backdrop of uncertainty.
• Solve problems through logical reasoning.
• Present findings and opinions in a clear, structured manner, whether orally or in writing.
• Engage in collaborative and constructive discussion.

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed during the course by means of set assignments. These do not count towards the end of year results, but will provide students with developmental feedback, both written and oral.

Summative

Assessment will be in two forms:

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

The reading list may vary for this course, depending on which aspects of ethics and political theory are being focused on.

Adorno & Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944)

Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950)

Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

Arendt, On Violence (1970)

Held, Feminist Morality (1993)

Ferreira da Silva, Toward a Global Idea of Race (2007)

Clowney & Mosto (eds.), Earthcare: An Anthology in Environmental Ethics (2009)

Marion Young, Responsibility for Justice (2011)

Dussel, Ethics of Liberation in the Age of Globalization and Exclusion (2013)

Crenshaw, On Intersectionality: Essential Writings (2017)

Benjamin, Race after Technology (2019)

Charbonnier, Affluence and Freedom (2021)

Táíwò, Reconsidering Reparations (2022)

Indicative Topics

• Authority, liberty, democracy, justice
• Feminism and intersectionality
• Environmental ethics and eco-philosophy
• Violence and non-violence
• Racism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism
• Global ethics and politics

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