Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Mianna Lotz
Contact via mianna.lotz@mq.edu.au
W6A Rooom 734
By appointment
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
39cp or admission to GDipArts
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit explores important contemporary debates in ethics, focusing in particular on the application and role of ethical theory in lived moral life. We begin with a consideration of influential challenges to consequentialism, which claim that it is self-defeating, leads to moral schizophrenia, and is incompatible with important moral goods like integrity and friendship. We then consider virtue ethics, focusing on its characterisation of human flourishing, its capacity to be action-guiding, and the implications of the dirty hands problem posed when virtuous agents confront tragic moral dilemmas. Finally we consider challenges to the very notion of moral character. Scepticism about the existence of character arises from findings in social psychology which appear to indicate that features of a person's situation play a larger role in determining the morality of their action than does their moral (or immoral) character. We consider the empirical findings, the nature and implications of ethical situationism, and philosophical attempts to defend the notion of character against the situationist challenge.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
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Participation | 20% | Continuous |
Critical Review | 25% | To be scheduled. |
Peer review exercise | 20% | 5pm 27 Oct & 5pm 3 Nov |
Essay | 35% | Fri 7 November, 5pm |
Due: Continuous
Weighting: 20%
Internal: Attendance at 75% of seminars (frequency); and contribution to discussion (quality).
External: Comment throughout semester on at least 75% of the topics/questions posted on the iLearn Discussion Board each week. Must be posted within one week of the relevant lecture in order to count towards mark.
Due: To be scheduled.
Weighting: 25%
Internal: 10-12 min (1200 words max) critical review to be presented in the class seminar, on a topic, reading and date to be scheduled in negotiation with Convenor. Written version to be submitted same day.
External: Critical review (1200 words max) to be posted online on a topic, reading and date to be scheduled in negotiation with Convenor.
Due: 5pm 27 Oct & 5pm 3 Nov
Weighting: 20%
Each student must complete a peer review of a fellow student's essay draft. A review rubric for this purpose will be supplied in class.
The rubric must be signed by the reviewer and the recipient as having fulfilled the following requirements:
(i) The draft essay was received by the peer reviewer by no later than 5pm Monday October 27.
(ii) The peer reviewer returned the peer review rubric by no later than 5pm Monday 3 November.
Failure to meet conditions (i) or (ii) will result in a mark of zero for this assessment task, for the author/reviewer as appropriate. This means: If the draft was not submitted to the reviewer by 5pm Monday 27 October, the author receives a mark of zero. If the review rubric was not returned to the author by 5pm Monday 3 November, the reviewer receives a mark of zero.
The signed review rubric must be submitted by BOTH the essay author and the essay reviewer, attached to her/his essay and submitted via the Turnitin Submission Link on the unit iLearn site, by the essay due date (5pm Friday 7 Nov). This means that each person's essay will have TWO review rubrics attached to their essay: the rubric they completed and the rubric they received. Student's must indicate in the space provided on the Rubric, how they took account of their reviewer's feedback.
Students should not review essays on the same topic as their own essay. Duplication of another student's work/ideas is NOT permitted, and will be readily detectable. Author/reviewer partners will be assigned in negotiation with the Unit Convenor to meet the above requirement.
Due: Fri 7 November, 5pm
Weighting: 35%
Write a 2500 word essay (+/- 10%) in response to one of the topics provided. The essay must include extended critical discussion and detailed application of at least one additional source of your own choosing (i.e. not one of the required unit readings).
Teaching in this unit will be by seminar format. Internal students attend one two-hour interactive seminar per week. Students are expected to remain up-to-date with reading and come prepared for discussion. Seminars will be fully recorded. External students are expected to participate online via the iLearn Discussion Board on a weekly basis, responding to both set questions and seminar content. External students must complete their online contributions within one week of each seminar topic.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND REQUIRED READINGS
Note: all required readings listed below are in the Unit Reader. Where more than two readings are listed, priority is to be given to the article(s) marked ‘*’.
PART 1 (WEEKS 1–4): CONSEQUENTIALISM AND ITS CRITICS
SEMINAR 1 (Aug 4): Course overview; Introduction to consequentialist and utilitarian ethical theory.
Reading:
*Philip Pettit, ‘Consequentialism’ in Peter Singer Singer (ed), A Companion to Ethics. (Oxford:Blackwell, 1993): pp. 230–240.
*Samuel Scheffler, Excerpt from ‘Introduction’, In Samuel Scheffler (ed.) Consequentialism and Its Critics, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998): pp. 1-5.
Thomas Nagel, excerpts from The View From Nowhere. (New York: OUP, 1986): 152-3; 164-6.
SEMINAR 2 (Aug 11): Is consequentialism self-defeating?
Reading:
*Peter Railton, excerpt 1 from ‘Alienation, Consequentialism and the Demands of Morality’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1984): pp. 134-171.
*Henry Sidgwick, excerpts from The Methods of Ethics, 7th edition, (London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1962): pp. 405-7; 411-17.
SEMINAR 3 (Aug 18): The ‘integrity’ objection to consequentialism
Reading:
*Bernard Williams, ‘Consequentialism and Integrity’ In Samuel Scheffler (ed.) Consequentialism and Its Critics, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998): pp. 20-50.
*Susan Wolf, ‘Moral Saints’, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 79, No. 8 (August, 1982): 419-439.
David O. Brink, excerpts from ‘Utilitarian Morality and the Personal Point of View’ The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 83, No. 8 (August 1986): pp. 417-38.
SEMINAR 4 (Aug 25): The ‘alienation’ and ‘friendship’ objections to consequentialism
Reading:
*William Godwin, ‘The Archbishop and the Chambermaid’. In Peter Singer (ed.) Ethics (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1994): 312-313.
*Michael Stocker, excerpt from ‘The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories’, The Journal of Philosophy Vol. 73, No. 14, On Motives and Morals (August 12, 1976): pp. 453-466.
*Peter Railton, excerpt 2 from ‘Alienation, Consequentialism and the Demands of Morality’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1984): pp. 134-171. Further Reading:
Dean Cocking and Justin Oakley, ‘Indirect Consequentialism, Friendship, and the Problem of Alienation’, Ethics, Vol. 106, No. 1 (October 1995): pp. 86-111.
Elinor Mason, ‘Do consequentialists have one thought too many?’ Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol, 2, (1999): 243-261
PART 2 (WEEKS 5-8): VIRTUE ETHICS AND ITS CRITICS
SEMINAR 5 (Sept 1): Introducing virtue ethics
Reading:
*Aristotle, excerpts from The Nicomachean Ethics. J.L. Ackrill, trans. (London: Faber & Faber, 1973.)
*Philippa Foot, ‘Virtues and Vices.’ In Stephen Darwall (ed), Virtue Ethics. (Oxford: BlackwellPublishing, 2003): pp. 105-120.
SEMINAR 6 (Sept 8):Challenges to virtue ethics: Can virtue ethics be action-guiding? PLUS: Honing philosophy essay-writing skills
Reading:
*James Rachels, ‘The Ethics of Virtue’. In James Rachels The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 3rdedition (Singapore: McGraw-Hill, 1999): pp. 175-193.
*Robert B. Louden, ‘On Some Vices of Virtue Ethics’. In Roger Crisp and Michael Slote (eds) Virtue Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997): pp. 201-216.
SEMINAR 7 (Sept 15): Virtue ethics responds
Reading:
*Rosalind Hursthouse, ‘Virtue Theory and Abortion’. Philosophy and Public Affairs Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 1991): pp. 223-246.
*Rosalind Hursthouse, ‘Normative Virtue Ethics’. In Roger Crisp (ed) How Should One Live? Essays on the Virtues. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996): pp. 19-36.
***** MID-SEMESTER BREAK: Mon 22 Sept – Fri 3 Oct *****
NOTE: No Seminar on Mon 6 October (Labour Day public holiday)
SEMINAR 8 (OCT 13): Virtue ethics and the challenge of tragic dilemmas
Reading:
*Rosalind Hursthouse, ‘Irresolvable and Tragic Dilemmas’, chp 3 from On Virtue Ethics (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001).
*Liezl Van Zyl, ‘Can Virtuous People Emerge from Tragic Dilemmas Having Acted Well?, Journal of Applied Philosophy vol. 24, No. 1 (2007): 50-61.
PART 3 (WEEKS 10-12): VIRTUE, CHARACTER AND CHARACTER-SKEPTICISM
SEMINAR 9 (Oct 20): Philosophical character skepticism and ‘situationist’ ethics
Reading:
*Gilbert Harman, ‘Moral Psychology Meets Social Psychology: Virtue Ethics and the Fundamental Attribution Error’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol 99 (1999): 315-331.
*John M. Doris, ‘Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics’, Nous Vol. 32 No. 4 (1998): 504-530.
Gilbert Harman, ‘The Nonexistence of Character Traits’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society vol. 100 (1999-2000): 223-226.
Stanley Milgram, ‘Behavioral Study of Obedience’, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology Vol. 67, No. 4 (1963): 371-378.
John M. Darley and C. Daniel Batson, ‘”From Jerusalem to Jericho”: A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 27 No. 1 (1973): 100-108.
SEMINAR 10 (Oct 27): Defending character.
Reading:
*Joel J. Kupperman, ‘The Indispensability of Character’, Philosophy Vol. 76, No. 296 (April 2001): 239-250.
*Robert C. Soloman, ‘What’s Character Got To Do With It?’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. LXXI No. 3 (November 2005): 648-655.
WEEK 12 (Nov 3) Non-teaching week: No seminar this week. Consultation, essay preparation and essay reviews.
***ESSAY PEER REVIEWS DUE BY MON 3 NOVEMBER (at the latest)
***ESSAYS DUE: 5PM FRIDAY 7 NOVEMBER.
**** SEMESTER ENDS ****
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Date | Description |
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04/08/2014 | Change to peer review deadline. |