Module PHLM015 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
PHLM015: Contemporary Ethics
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
Practical and theoretical themes relating to current problems.
The role of human nature arguments in current practical ethics such as interspecies ethics, violence, and responsibility in relation to oneself, others and global ethics on the one hand the importance of meaning, rules and normativity on the other.
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | 124 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11 x 2 hour taught sessions - 30-minute lectures and 1.5 hour seminar discussion of readings for each 2-hour session |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 4 | 4 x 1-hour facilitated tutorial with student presentations |
| Guided Independent Study | 16 | Analyse one course reading and write a succinct summary of the key arguments of the text |
| Guided Independent Study | 58 | Reading of the module texts for each week |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | Writing independent research essay. Conduct guided and independent research on a theme from the course; write a scholarly essay to be submitted after the end of term |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Seyla Benhabib (2011) Dignity in Adversity. Human Rights in Troubled Times, Polity Press.
Butler, Judith (2004) Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. Verso.
Card, C. (1988). Gratitude and Obligation, American Philosophical Quarterly, 25 (2): 15-127.
Angela Davis (2012) The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues, City Lights Press.
Jürgen Habermas (2003) The Future of Human Nature, Polity Press.
Hans Jonas (1973) Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New task of Ethics, Social Research Vol. 40/1, pp. 31-54.
Saba Mahmood (2005) ‘The Subject of Freedom’. The Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Adam Rosenblatt (2015) Digging for the Disappeared. Forensic Science after Atrocity. Stanford University Press.
Susan Sherwin (1992) No Longer Patient, Feminist Ethics and Health Care, Temple University Press.
Vandana Shiva (2005) Earth Democracy. Justice, Sustainability and Peace, North Atlantic Books.
Hugo Slim (2015) Humanitarian Ethics, Oxford University Press, part II, The Modern Elaboration of Humanitarian Principles, pp. 39-121.
Lisa Tessman (2009) Feminist Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy. Theorizing the Non-Ideal, Springer.
