After completion of the course the student:
1. is able to distinguish four different types of approaches to applied ethics (viz., high theory, low theory, the mid-level approach, and empirical ethics) and can reflect on the merits and demerits of each of these approaches, including the merits and demerits of their metaethical and epistemological commitments;
2. has in-depth knowledge of the most important normative ethical theories (utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics) and of the main criticisms and advantages of these positions in the context of applied ethics;
3. is able to formulate and critically assess their own position in the debate on approaches to applied ethics.
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This course is about the relation between ethical theory and moral practice: should applied ethicists just be concerned with the application of ethical theories to concrete cases (high theory), or does their specific focus on resolving often acute ethical dilemmas require an alternative approach? We start with a graduate level discussion of moral relativism in order to introduce some metaethical concerns and to debunk the prevalent, but ultimately flawed, idea that all moral beliefs are ultimately on a par because they are the result of cultural influences that are both unavoidable and demand our respect and tolerance. We then discuss the three main normative ethical theories (utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics) and we assess their merits and demerits, including the merits and demerits of their metaethical and epistemological commitments. After this we ask whether applied ethicists should accept the high theory approach or whether they should think that a good ethical analysis and assessment of practical ethical problems comes from either a particularist or other low theory approach, or else from mid-level positions that hold the middle between these two extremes. A radical alternative to the debate about the extent to which applied ethicists should use and apply normative ethical theories comes empirical ethics, according to which, at least roughly, empirical studies are highly significant for, and some cases fully determine, answers to our ethical questions. This is a radical alternative because everyone in the high theory-low theory debate believes that some sort of appeal to normativity, be in the form of appeal to moral theories (high theory) or else directly by appeal to the relevant normative features of situations (particularism), is required and because empirical ethics denies this. We close with an assessment of a famous paper in applied ethics to apply and consolidate the knowledge obtained in this course.
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