Module Details
The information contained in this module specification was correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change, either during the session because of unforeseen circumstances, or following review of the module at the end of the session. Queries about the module should be directed to the member of staff with responsibility for the module.
Title FRONTIERS OF ETHICS
Code PHIL302
Coordinator Dr SA Hailwood
Philosophy
Hailwood@liverpool.ac.uk
Year CATS Level Semester CATS Value
Session 2014-15 Level Three First Semester 15

Aims

To consider conceptual and ethical issues arising from matters of global concern, such as international justice, war, and the environmental crisis.
To consider arguments and assumptions underlying a range of claims concerning such issues as disability, global citizenship, climate change and the ethical status of nature.

To examine difficulties for traditional philosophical approaches raised by such issues and recent theoretical developments relevant to them.

Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to distinguish between some of the main concepts involved in philosophical debates arising from matters of current global concern.

Students will be able to distinguish between different ways of understanding  concepts in philosophical debates arising from from matters of global concern.

Students will be able to explain and evaluate some of the main theories in debates about matters of disability, global justice, just war, environmental justice and environmental ethics.

Students will be able to analyse concepts and arguments relating to current ethical issues.

Students will be able to identify philosophical assumptions underlying ethical claims.
Students will be able to structure a philosophical discussion of current ethical issues.
Students will be able to speak with confidence and clarity on current ethical issues.
Students will be able to explain details of texts shaping current philosophical debates about matters of global concern.

Students will be able to articulate and defend positions in current philosophical debates about matters of global concern.
Students will be able to write coherently and rigorously about abstract philosophical issues raised by current ethical controversies.

Syllabus
1 
Ethics, disabilities and capabilities
Global citizenship and international justice
War
Climate and future generations
Environmental justice
Anthropocentrism, dualism and nature
Nature and value


Teaching and Learning Strategies

Lectures with online support

Seminars
The module is taught via one lecture and one seminar per week. Lecture summaries and other support material will be placed on VITAL on a weekly basis.
 
Feedback on essays and assessed seminar presentations will be delivered via VITAL and students are offered opportunities for face-to-face discussion of this feedback.
 
Additional support is available at staff office hours.

Teaching Schedule
  Lectures Seminars Tutorials Lab Practicals Fieldwork Placement Other TOTAL
Study Hours 11

 10
Seminars start in Week 2.
      2
Assessment-
23
Timetable (if known)   Seminars start in Week 2.
  		         
Private Study 127
TOTAL HOURS 150

Assessment
EXAM Duration Timing
(Semester)		 % of
final
mark		 Resit/resubmission
opportunity		 Penalty for late
submission		 Notes
TBC  2 hour exam  1  60  Yes     
CONTINUOUS Duration Timing
(Semester)		 % of
final
mark		 Resit/resubmission
opportunity		 Penalty for late
submission		 Notes
TBC  10-15 minute present  1  10  No reassessment opportunity    Assessed presentation (10%). Presentations occur in seminars and are assessed by the seminar tutor. It is not possible for assessed presentations to be marked anonymously. Essay (30%). Examination (60%).  
TBC  2,000 word essay  1  30  Yes  Standard UoL penalty applies   

Recommended Texts
Nussbaum, M.  Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership(Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006).
Schlosberg, D. Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements and Nature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). 
Dobson, A. Citizenship and the Environment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Gardiner, S., Caney, S., Jamieson, D., & Shue, H., (eds) Climate Ethics: Essential Readings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Jamieson, D. Ethics and the Environment: an Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Keller, D. (ed). Environmental Ethics: the Big Questions (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
Plumwood, V. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (London: Routledge, 1993).
Pogge, T., Horton, K, (eds). Global Ethics: Seminal Essays (New York: Paragon House, 2009).
Rawls, J.  A Theory of Justice Rev. ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999).
Rawls, J. The Law of Peoples (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999).