Global Ethics & Human Values

Course detail Description

Our Global Ethics & Human Values course will encourage and develop your thinking about the complex theoretical and practical issues confronting the world and equip you with the analytical skills to address those issues with philosophical rigour. It draws extensively on branches of philosophy, politics and international relations and will introduce you to a wide range of ideas, concepts and problems within those areas.

You will examine theoretical perspectives within ethics, such as deontology, consequentialism and virtue and explore how these perspectives can be used to understand important and emotive issues such as religious and political conflict, nationalism, abortion and sexual perversion. You will also study the works and insights of major political philosophers to consider how concepts such as liberty or equality have been interpreted to shape the world we live in.

Our course is equally suited for students with a background in philosophy, politics, economics, history or social sciences, or those already working in government, international aid or NGOs, or in corporate social responsibility in the commercial sector.

You will study three required modules and choose three optional modules. In the first semester, you will be exposed to a range of philosophical approaches within epistemology, ethics and political philosophy, which will be applied to relevant topics in a globalising world. In the second semester, you will be asked to apply the philosophical techniques and conceptual frameworks of the first semester to various global issues, ranging from terrorism to environmental concerns, human rights, world poverty and international justice.

In the final months of the course, you will choose a global issue of special interest to you and research it to write a 12,000-15,000-word dissertation.

Prof. Wenar will be on sabbatical during 2019-20 and so not teaching on the course.

All modules are run as seminars, with a mixture of formal presentation by the instructor and active discussion among members of the seminar. Instructors are also available outside of seminars, and during the dissertation phase students will have personal guidance from a specific instructor.

Full time

There will be 6-8 hours of lectures, seminars and feedback per week. Students are expected to spend 32-34 hours per week engaed in self-study.

Part time

There will be 4-6 hours of lectures, seminars and feedback per week. Students are expected to spend 14-16 hours per week engaged in self-study.

Assessment

The three required modules are assessed together by one three-hour exam and optional modules are assessed by a 3,000 word essay. The exception is the Internship module for which candidates are assessed by a proposal, a short journal and a 4,000 word project.

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Structure

Year 1 Courses are divided into modules. You will normally take modules totalling 180 credits. Required Modules You are required to take the following modules:

• Ethics (20 credits)
• Contemporary Political Philosophy (20 credits)
• Ideological Conflict, Belief and Philosophy (20 credits)
• Dissertation – Global Ethics and Human Values (60 credits)

• International Justice and Human Rights (20 credits)
• Citizenship (20 Credits)
• Topics in Global Ethics (20 credits)
• Ethics of Culture (20 credits)
• International Conflict and Justice (20 Credits)
• Human Rights and Corporate Responsibility (20 Credits)
• Politics, Culture, and Feminism (20 Credits)
• The Earth and its Future (20 Credits)

Part-time students are advised to take 80 credits in the first year and 100 credits (which includes the 60 credit dissertation) in the second year of their course of studies.