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Study graduate certificate online through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

Students in this program will study philosophy and theology from within the Catholic liberal arts tradition, concentrating on the subject’s main themes of “human person” and “the good life”. They will learn to convey why the Church teaches various contemporary moral and social issues. They will investigate about the Catholic tradition of the arts, including painting, sculpture, music, architecture, film, and literature.

Engage with scripture, texts, art, and literature to make Christian sense of philosophy and theology. Think about why the Church teaches what it teaches, and how to apply those teachings to navigate today’s moral and social issues.

Graduate Certificate in Catholic Thought

Critical Thinking

Happiness, Goodness and Justice

The Philosophy of Human Nature

Thinking Ethically

Introductory Philosophy: Moral and Political Philosophy

Politics, Philosophy and Economics

Minds, Brains, and Machines: Contemporary Philosophy of Mind

Introduction to Logic

Biosciences Technology and Society

Making of the Modern Western World View

This subject was previously known as PHIX137 Critical Thinking.Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Session 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Session 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Session 1 or 2 offering.This subject aims to teach the fundamentals of critical thinking and reasoning. Students will learn how to construct, analyse and critically evaluate arguments; how to detect common fallacies in reasoning; and how to think logically and creatively. We teach these skills by developing practical techniques for the evaluation of reasoning, and applying them to arguments from business, law, science, politics, philosophy and the media. Critical thinking skills are invaluable across all disciplines, and will benefit students in academic contexts and in life beyond university.s

Identify methods used to structure arguments. Beware of fallacies and pseudo-arguments. Prepare for discourses on subjects including science, philosophy and law. Sharpen your approach to thinking critically and producing well-reasoned arguments.

Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Session 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Session 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Session 2 offering.This subject provides an introduction to major topics in ethics, moral theory and contemporary political philosophy. The first section focuses on the nature of happiness. Is pleasure essential to happiness? Or does the pursuit of pleasure harm our chances of lasting fulfilment? Must we be virtuous in order to be happy? What is the relationship between happiness and duty? The second section explores the nature of moral goodness. Is morality based ultimately in self-interest? What is the relationship between morality and religion? Are there moral principles that everyone is bound by reason to recognise? Or is the validity of moral standards relative to specific societies and cultures? In the third section we turn to questions of applied political philosophy, focusing on questions such as: What principles should govern the distribution of economic and social resources within a society? What are the obligations of wealthy nations to those less fortunate, including immigrants and refugees? And what issues of justice are raised by climate change?

Ask questions about the nature of happiness. Address atheism and religion as you deconstruct what it means to be morally good. Question the relationship between politics and justice. Read up on philosophical arguments by Kant and Aristotle.

This subject was previously known as PHIX131 Mind and World.The subject introduces the big philosophical questions about human nature, personal identity and the meaning of life. Are human beings somehow unique in nature? Do we have distinct selves that endure through time? Do we have free will? What is the relation between our identity and the things that matter to us? The main theme is whether there is such a thing as human nature at all. We begin by asking whether mind is entirely physical or could in principle survive bodily death. We also explore the links between the self, time, and memory. The remainder of the unit introduces some key thinkers of the twentieth century; and we explore their views on freedom, lived experience, and our relations to others. The unit as a whole offers a detailed introduction to controversial questions about the nature of the mind, showing how historical understanding animates current debates, and demonstrating the relevance of philosophy to live modern issues about science, human nature, and culture.

Open your mind to philosophical arguments about identity, human nature and the meaning of life. Pry into what makes individual human beings unique. Position the concept of free will against determinism. Join in arguments by 20th century key thinkers. 

This subject introduces you to key concepts, problems and arguments in ethics. It encourages you to engage with your own thinking about ethics. It therefore asks such questions as: what is the basis of making an ethical decision? Are actions intrinsically right or wrong, or do outcomes matter more than the means of achieving them? Can we, should we, mix and match ethical responses based on different frameworks? Why does it all matter in a world where we often seem to live in an economy rather than a society? By the end of this subject, you will know enough about thinking ethically and living thoughtfully to reflect upon your own position in Australian society and navigate your way through a constantly changing world.

Take a closer look at what it is to think, act and view the world ethically. Learn about universalist, relativist and pluralist thinking. Write a personal ethical statement. Traverse the blurred lines separating facts, beliefs and interpretation.

This subject was previously known as PHI230, PHIX201 Business and Professional Ethics. Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Session 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Session 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Session 1 offering. This unit investigates some of main ethical issues that arise in professional life and from the activities of businesses and corporations. The unit explores the nature and value of work as well as its role in personal identity and social organisation. We also consider the obligations and responsibilities that come with professional work and the management of businesses. We examine the nature of corporations and their responsibilities to individual workers and consumers, stakeholders, groups such as women and minorities, and the environment.

Break down the ethical considerations that can stem from business activities. Firm up your view on a business' social responsibilities. Unpack codes of conduct and whistleblowing. Question the ability of corporations to influence government policies.

Ethics, Business and Work

This subject introduces you to the disciplines of politics, philosophy, and economics (PPE). Develop your knowledge of political institutions and their history. Learn how influential theories think philosophically about justice. Advance your economic understanding of how incentives affect human behaviour. And then apply perspectives from each PPE discipline to analyse topics: trade, economic inequality, environmental degradation, and concepts from educational opportunity. You will then see how each discipline can illuminate very different aspects of a particular problem. You will use PPE perspectives to analyse markets, inequality, environmental degradation, educational opportunity, and discrimination problem, with useful implications for policy-making. This is a core subject for students in La Trobe&#39;s Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), but it is also open and accessible to any student seeking an introduction to these three disciplines, politics, philosophy, and economics) and their intersecting application to real-world challenges. This is a level 1 subject. This subject includes live sessions with the expectation of student attendance and participation.

What is it that makes us good or evil, virtuous or vicious? What does it mean to be a competent agent who can be held responsible for moral as well as immoral action? And what does morality and moral theory require of us as agents? Thinking about what motivates morality raises important questions about the role played by reason, will, emotion and intuition in bringing about moral­ behaviour. It also offers a basis for critically examining prominent ethical theories to see how well they can accommodate the lived realities of human agency and motivation. And it invites further questions about the contribution of social context and psychopathic conditions in explaining ordinary and extreme forms of wrongdoing. This unit will critically examine the philosophical and psychological literature on moral agency, virtue, goodness, and evil, as well as exploring historical and contemporary philosophical accounts of the importance of such things as integrity, character, autonomy and respect for others in moral life and moral relations.

The Ethics and Moral Psychology of Good and Evil

What is knowledge? Why is it valuable? And to what extent is our knowledge of the world affected by social position, power and language?  In this unit, we will explore traditional and contemporary approaches to epistemological questions about what we can know, what we should believe, and whom and what we should trust. Can we trust our individual senses or reflection to provide knowledge of the world, or is knowledge inherently social? When our own intuitions clash with what others say, should we trust ourselves or our community? When should we trust and defer to experts, and how can we tell who&#39;s really an expert to begin with? We will consider philosophical and practical questions about what it is to be a good or bad epistemic agent, focusing on concepts of epistemic (ir)responsibility and epistemic virtues and vices. We will also examine society-level phenomena that may undermine some people&#39;s ability to engage fully as epistemic agents, including systemic material, social, and political patterns that can manifest as epistemic injustice.  Through an examination of issues including political language, propaganda and conspiracy theories, we will consider how our epistemic practices and institutions can lead to injustice or corruption, and what we can do about it.

Knowledge, Language and Power

This subject introduces students to moral and political philosophy. Drawing on a range of topics, themes, and methods, this subject explores foundational questions within both moral and political philosophy. As such, this subject provides an introduction to philosophy, the world’s oldest academic discipline, and will help students develop their capacity for critical reflection upon the nature of the human condition.

This unit explores some of the major traditions in Philosophical and Scientific thinking about Consciousness and the Self. The unit introduces core questions concerning what consciousness is: What can we know about consciousness through scientific enquiry? How can a physical system, such as the brain, be conscious? How do we situate consciousness in a social and cultural context? The unit also introduces philosophical and scientific thinking about the self and introduces questions including: Is there really such a thing as a Self? Is the self narratively constructed? What is the relationship between the self and others?

Consciousness and Self

Graduate Certificate Philosophy Courses & Degrees | Open Universities Australia

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