Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Matthew Millar
Contact via matthew.millar@mq.edu.au
W6A 740
By appointment
Tutor
Kelly Hamilton
Contact via kelly.hamilton@mq.edu.au
TBA
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
(12cp at 100 level or above) 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
Is morality more a matter of reason or of passion? While we often think of strong emotions and desires as a threat to virtue, leading to action which is weak-willed or compulsive, recent work in psychology and neuroscience has tended to support a sentimentalist account of morality. This evidence suggests that moral judgments are intuitive, emotional judgments and that paradigmatically evil individuals such as psychopaths are deficient in empathy not in rationality. They know what is wrong but they just don't care. They are bad not mad! Empathy or sympathy seems to be essential to the development of conscience, moral understanding, and morally good action. Yet most evil actions are not performed by psychopaths. We will critically examine philosophical and psychological literature on the contribution of a range of cognitive processes including memory, emotion, mindreading, planning and imagination to moral competence and moral motivation and reconsider whether limited rationality or limited sympathy is the key to understanding a range of moral failings and impairments. We will also examine the role of disease or disorder in explaining both ordinary and extreme cases of wrongdoing.
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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:
Unit Requirements and Expectations: Attendance
For internal students only:
Lectures: Attendance at lectures is required. Absences must be supported by medical certificates or equivalent. You will only be eligible to receive an attendance and participation mark if you have attended at least 70% of the lectures.
Students can request an exemption from the lecture attendance requirement on the grounds of timetable clashes or for other reasons the unit convenor deems acceptable. Supporting documentation must be provided. Exemption requests must be made in writing (email) to the unit convenor by the end of week 3.
Tutorials: Attendance at the tutorials by internal students will be worth a maximum of 5 marks: 0.5 mark per tutorial attended (10 tutorials). Participation will be worth a maximum of 10 marks. Absences must be supported by medical certificates or equivalent.
For external students: There is no on-campus session for this unit. External students are expected to answer the weekly tutorial questions and contribute to the online discussion board on a regular basis. You will only be eligible to receive an attendance and participation mark if you have contributed to at least 7 of the 10 weeks. Online attendance and participation of external students will be marked on the basis of weekly contributions. In order to get full marks for attendance (5 marks), an external student will need to post at least one contribution to online discussions per week. Participation will be worth a maximum of 10 marks.
Assignment Submission
Assignments in this course will be submitted electronically, as Word documents. There is no need for a coversheet - the iLearn assignment submission (Turnitin) involves declaring your details and honesty in submitting your work. Please note, we do not accept submission by email attachment. A Turnitin link will be provided on the iLearn homepage.
Extensions and Special Consideration
Requests for extensions must, normally, be made in writing before the due date. Extensions of up to 3 days can be granted by your tutor if reasonable grounds are given, and some written documentation can be produced. Work load from other units, or from employment, are not considered reasonable justification.
Requests for extensions of more than 3 days should be submitted via a Disruption to Studies Request, which is available in the ask.mq.edu.au portal. Your request should be accompanied by appropriate documentation, such as a medical certificate. Please see the Disruption to Studies policy in the list of policies at the end of this document for further details.
Penalties for Late Submission
Late submission not covered by an approved extension will incur a penalty of 1 mark per day (including weekends). Work will not be accepted after 2 weeks from the due date unless you have submitted a disruption to studies request.
Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
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Short essay | 25% | No | 14/09/17 |
Attendance and Participation | 15% | No | Continuous |
Two Tutorial Quizzes | 20% | No | TBA |
Major essay | 40% | No | 10/11/17 |
Due: 14/09/17
Weighting: 25%
All students will be expected to complete an 800-1000 word short essay comparing the views of Hume and Kant on moral judgment and motivation. This task will be assessed by the following criteria: content, structure, argument and critical analysis, written expression and referencing. A marking rubric and detailed task outline for this task will be supplied on the iLearn homepage.
Due: Continuous
Weighting: 15%
Contributions to tutorial and online discussions are an important part of this unit. This means doing assigned readings, reviewing the weekly tutorial questions and engaging constructively with peers. This task will be assessed by the following criteria: demonstration of familiarity with and understanding of the relevant readings and topics; quality of contribution to class discussion and group work. A marking rubric and detailed task outline for this task will be supplied on the iLearn homepage.
Note: Internal students must attend at least 70% of the lectures for the unit in order to be eligible to receive a mark for attendance and participation. External students will only be eligible to receive a mark for attendance and participation if they contribute online to at least seven of the ten tutorial weeks. See General Assessment Information for further details.
Due: TBA
Weighting: 20%
All students will be expected to complete two tutorial quizzes in class or online (external students) during the semester. The quizzes will be on-the-spot, so students will not be told in advance in which weeks the quizzes will be held. Students will be required to answer two of the set tutorial questions for the given week. Each quiz will be worth 10 marks. This task will be assessed by the following criteria: understanding of the question, adequacy of the answer, understanding of relevant concepts and arguments, written expression. A marking rubric and detailed task outline for this task will be supplied on the iLearn homepage.
Due: 10/11/17
Weighting: 40%
Students will be expected to complete a 1600-1800 word essay analysing a case study of evil using the relevant concepts introduced in the unit and making use of the appropriate unit readings. This task will be assessed by the following criteria: content, structure, argument and critical analysis, written expression and referencing. A marking rubric and detailed task outline for this task will be supplied on the iLearn homepage.
Required Reading
All required readings and most supplementary readings are available from the library on e-Reserve. There is no reader for this unit. A week-by-week schedule of required readings and supplementary readings can be found on the PHIL226 iLearn homepage.
Technology Used and Required
We use an iLearn website. Lectures are recorded. Lecture slides and any other material you need will be available through the iLearn website. We recommend you have access to a reliable internet connection throughout semester.
Classes
For lecture times and classrooms please consult the MQ Timetable website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au. This website will display up-to-date information on your classes and classroom locations.
Week 1: Introduction: Moral judgment and moral motivation
Week 2: What is evil?
Week 3. Evil and bad morality: Limited sympathy or limited rationality?
Week 4: Emotion based accounts of moral judgment and motivation in philosophy and psychology
Week 5: Reason based accounts of moral judgment and motivation in philosophy and psychology
Week 6: Testing the accounts. Psychopathy and acquired sociopathy.
Week 7: Testing the accounts: Autism
Semester break: September 18 - October 3
Week 8: Mad or bad?
Week 9: What do we lack when we lack conscience?
Week 10: Moral identity
Week 11: Moral Responsibility and Moral Motivation
Week 12: Evil and Responsibility: Can someone be evil but not responsible?
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html
Disruption to Studies Policy (in effect until Dec 4th, 2017): http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html
Special Consideration Policy (in effect from Dec 4th, 2017): https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
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This graduate capability is supported by:
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This graduate capability is supported by:
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This graduate capability is supported by:
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