Undergraduate Module Descriptor

LAW3158: Law and Philosophy

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

The topics to be researched will be chosen by those taking this module, but suggestions include the following. Should animals have rights? Can punishment be justified? Is there such a thing as a just war? What can the rule of law learn from anarchy?

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
16.5	133.5	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	16.5	11 x 1.5 hour seminars
Guided Independent Study	80	Seminar preparation
Guided Independent Study	50	Essay writing
Guided independent study	3.5	Reflecting on feedback

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.

We will discuss in seminar which resources are likely to be relevant to which topics have been chosen. But the following reading can be useful:

Blackburn, Ethics (OUP: 2003) (an introduction to ethics)

Singer, Practical Ethics, 3^rd edn (CUP: 2011) (ethical theory applied to a number of topics)

Fearn, Zeno and the Tortoise (Grove Press: 2002) (entertaining first introduction to philosophy)

We will not be restricted to Western philosophy – but that tradition does loom large. Good overviews include:

Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (Routledge: 2004)

Cottingham (ed), Western Philosophy: An Anthology (Blackwell: 1996)