Ethical Perspectives on Social Issues

• • A week-by-week guide to the topics you will explore in this subject will be provided in your study materials.

You must have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject:

• MAQ-PHIX1032-Happiness, Goodness and Justice

Others

Pre-requisite: 130cp at 1000 level or above NCCW (pre-2020 units) PHIL341, PHL341 NCCW (2020 and onwards) PHIL3041

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Humans are embedded in complex networks of social relations within which norms of practice arise, including ethical and political norms. Sometimes these are formalised (as in medicine and the military) and other times they are informal and part of interpersonal shared conventions (as in gender, race and identity relations). In both informal and formal contexts these norms continually undergo processes of validation, disruption, contestation, re-negotiation and renewal. This unit will apply ethical theory and analysis in exploring a range of contemporary and pressing social questions, each of which is undergoing some form of challenge to its existing and sometimes deeply entrenched norms and conventions. Topics will vary from year to year but include: reproduction, abortion, and ectogenesis; gender pronoun usage; cancel culture; civil disobedience and political protest; physician-assisted suicide and norms of medicine at the end-of-life; conflicts of interest and bias in healthcare contexts; and the justice and ethics of warfare and humanitarian intervention.

• Essay preparation (15%)
• Essay (40%)
• Reflective Writing (20%)
• Participation and engagement (25%)

For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).