Welcome to the module Philosophical Ethics 1 (1PHP321 / APHP321)
The module focusses on giving you an enhanced understanding of ethical theories including how to apply these to relevant ethically challenging scenarios such as ethical dilemmas and moral mazes. Through this rigorous and engaging course, you can learn to analyse problems from multiple perspectives – something that will make you more effective in your current role and prepare you for even greater responsibilities in your chosen vocation.
This module is intended for third-year level students who have selected Philosophy as a major. It aims at helping students to critically investigate the principles governing human actions in terms of their ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’, ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’. By the end of this module, you should be able to have an enhanced understanding of ‘how ought I to act? or ‘what should I do?’ in a situation in which there is an ethical dilemma to solve or a moral maze to work through.
We discuss various philosophies, African and Western, and how these should enlighten our ethical practice in an African and international context. We consider Utilitarianism, Deontology, the Rights Model, Ubuntu, Relativism, and Virtue and Applied ethics to investigate what ought to be done in ethically challenging circumstances. We will also discuss Gender Based Violence (GBV) and investigate what the moral theories have to teach us about this important area which is plaguing societies globally.