This course offers a survey of ethical ideas and theories in philosophical and religious schools of thought and traditions respectively; beyond this it addresses specific topical moral issues in the fields of bioethics, political ethics, and environmental ethics.
Ethics considers what is right and wrong and good and bad in human actions, analyzing questions such as how we ought to live, what kind of persons we should be, which aims are worth striving for, and what obligations we have to others. This course combines three different approaches by a) studying the history of philosophical and religious ideas, b) investigating systematical and conceptual issues (e.g. virtue, happiness, justice, love & friendship, dignity, moral rights and duties, compassion and other emotions), and c) analyzing concrete moral problems from different perspectives.
Major currents of philosophical and religious ethics will be represented in primary sources from Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, and in texts by key thinkers such as Confucius, Mencius, Aristotle, Stoic philosophers, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche and others. We will analyze influential theories and principles such as deontology, consequentialism, the golden rule, divine command theory, neighborly love, natural law theory, ahimsa or dao. The theoretical framework of rival ethical theories will be applied to exploring the complexities of debates about concrete moral problems related to, e.g. poverty and affluence, war and ‘humanitarian interventions’, animal welfare, and moral problems concerning climate change and future generations.
The course is part of both the philosophy track and the religious studies track. At the same time it should appeal to Social Science majors and to students with an interest in morally relevant issues (sustainability, biomedicine etc.).

 

Format
Class meetings focus on discussion of selected readings (esp. primary texts) and issues related to them. The Instructor presents background information and related views, questions, or objections that are explored during class. Students are supposed to prepare the texts prior to the class for which they are assigned.
There are short written assignments, e.g. summarizing an argument or illustrating it in the form of a graph, formulating objections against an argument in the text, preparing an annotated bibliography etc.
Students are stimulated to discuss and evaluate the ideas that the texts present, and to propose alternatives. There are instructor-guided but open class discussions; students are supposed to actively engage with the material and to actively participate in class.
Students are responsible for the preparation of an essay, a brief presentation, and an exam.

Track

The course is a core course in the Religious Studies Track as well as in the Philosophy Track. The course alternates with UCHUMPHI25: Philosophical Views on Humans and Gods.