Overview

This unit teaches an appreciation of the historical roots of different ethical doctrines, showing how these are related to ideas about the good life, freeing people to identify, understand and choose between traditions of ethical thought. It helps students to develop an understanding of the relationship between ethics, communities, institutions, society and the environment required to enable people to make judgements about how to act and how to live if the conditions for communities are to be sustained. It also helps students understand the limitations and defects of prevailing ethical thought and enables students to identify, criticise and provide alternatives to the assumptions of social, economic and political programs that are undermining our global eco-systems.

Requisites

Prerequisites
PHI10008 Introduction to Ethics

Rules:

Equivalent

PHI20008 Practical and Environmental Ethics

 

Antirequisites
PHI30008 Ethics
Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
29-July-2024
27-October-2024
Last self-enrolment date
11-August-2024
Census date
31-August-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
13-September-2024
Results released date
03-December-2024
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
04-August-2025
02-November-2025
Last self-enrolment date
17-August-2025
Census date
31-August-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
19-September-2025
Results released date
09-December-2025

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Identify and examine the relationships between ethics, communities, institutions, societies and the environment in ways which enable them to evaluate how to best live in these contexts.
  • Critically examine the historical roots of different ethical doctrines and show how these are related to ideas about the good life and nature.
  • Critically engage with work by leading ethics’ theorists to reveal the limitations and defects of dominant ethics’ theory and reveal the sources of these defective doctrines in order to act to develop more adequate ways of thinking about ethics and life.
  • Critique and provide alternatives to the ethical assumptions of social, economic and political programmes that are undermining democracy and our essential ecosystems.

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-campus
Lecture
1.00 12 weeks 12
On-campus
Class
2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Activities
Various
3.00 12 weeks 36
Unspecified Activities
Independent Learning
6.50 12 weeks 78
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Major EssayIndividual 50% 1,2,3,4 
Minor EssayIndividual 30% 1,2,3,4 
Tutorial PresentationIndividual 20% 1,2,3,4 

Content

  • How to make judgements, how to act and how to live in a way that augments rather than undermines the social and ecological conditions of human existence
  • Modern and classical philosophies of ethics, their achievements and limitations, and recent efforts to revive and further develop classical philosophies, all within their historical contexts
  • How ethics cannot be abstracted from politics and an understanding one’s roles in multiple communities
  • How to cultivate the virtues required to sustain these communities and the forms of life they facilitate

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.