Moral Development, Reasoning and Decision Making
Online Synchronous (10 weeks)
This module forms part of the ARU MAs and are open to all MA students as part of their degree.
Course Leader: Dr Anna Abram
Dates: Mondays 18th Jan–22nd March 2021, 5.30–8pm
This postgraduate module introduces students to different ways of thinking about moral matters and dilemmas within normative philosophical ethics. It enquires into such questions as ‘what makes an act right or wrong and the human being good or bad?’; ‘how should one live?’ (a Socratic question), ‘what is the good life? (an Aristotelian question), ‘how do we assess difficult moral situations?’; ‘where our principles come from?’; ‘why be moral?’, ‘do moral facts exist?’; ‘what does moral living require of us, both as human beings and within our specific social, professional and vocational roles?’. The course will enable students to think in an informed and structured way about the meaning, role and patterns of moral reasoning and decision making in terms of deontological, teleological and virtue-centred moral theories. Selected moral psychological theories of ego, cognitive and affective development as well as contemporary discussions within social and neuro psychology will also be also studied, adding an interdisciplinary element to this module.