Untitled Document

Use the print option of your browser to print this page

Network of Degrees in Ethics, Human Rights and Institutions

Lancaster University Courses

www.lancs.ac.uk

Courses/Subjects in Ethics, Human Rights & Institutions Stream

Application Information for Exchange Students

The following courses/subjects are provisional and may be subject to change:

Ethics
Applied Ethics
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy
Political Ideas
Dissertation
Special Subject

Other available courses/subjects to make up the balance of your full-time load may be found on the University's website at www.lancs.ac.uk/admissions/admissns.htm

Course/Subject Name:	Ethics see Note 1 see Note 2
Course/Subject id:	PHIL213
Level:	For 2nd or 3rd year students
Pre-requisites:	Some 1st year philosophy
Start Date:	October or January
End Date:	December or June
Contact Hours:	1 lecture plus 1 seminar (1 hour) per week
ECTS Weighting:	8 ECTS credits
Course/Subject Outline:	This course provides an introduction to the central issues of moral philosophy, encompassing meta-ethics, normative ethics and moral psychology, and the study of primary texts, including classical authors and contemporary writings. Central topics discussion concerned skepticism about moral motivation, evolutionary approaches to ethics, the role of reason and sentiment in ethics, normative ethics approaches such as consequentialism and metaethical positions such as emotivism.
Assessment:	1 x 2,500 word essay + 2 hour exam (half year)
Reading:	Peter Singer (ed) A Companion to Ethics Hobbes, Leviathan Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals JS Mill, Utilitarianism
	...top
Course/Subject Name:	Applied Ethics see Note 1 see Note 2
Course/Subject id:	PHIL223
Level:	For 2nd or 3rd year students
Pre-requisites:	Some 1st year philosophy
Start Date:	October or January
End Date:	December or June
Contact Hours:	1 lecture plus 1 seminar (1 hour) per week
ECTS Weighting:	8 ECTS credits
Course/Subject Outline:	This course introduces students to some of the key debates in applied ethics. It begins by exploring the whole idea of "applied ethics" and problems associated with this terminology. The course then examines central issues in applied ethics, including biotechnology, animal ethics, the environment, and aspects of the ethics of life and death (including abortion and euthanasia).
Assessment:	1 x 2,500 word essay + 2 hour exam (half year)
Reading:	Hugh Lafollete (ed) Ethics in Practice Raymond Frey, Kit Wellman (eds) A Companion to Applied Ethics
	...top
Course/Subject Name:	Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy see Note 1 see Note 2
Course/Subject id:	PHIL228
Level:	For 2nd or 3rd year students
Pre-requisites:	Some 1st year philosophy
Start Date:	October or January
End Date:	December or June
Contact Hours:	1 lecture plus 1 seminar (1 hour) per week
ECTS Weighting:	8 ECTS credits
Course/Subject Outline:	This course focuses on key issues in 19th and 20th century continental philosophy including Marx, Hegel, Nietzsche and Foucault. The approach taken is philosophical rather than historical and involves examining critically their claims and arguments about such matters as the existence and nature of human freedom, the critique of morality and its relationship to power; alienation and human labor, and the possibility of mutual recognition and community.
Assessment:	1 x 2,500 word essay + 2 hour exam (half year)
Reading:	Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit Marx, The Communist Manifesto Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality Foucault, Discipline and Punish
	...top
Course/Subject Name:	Political Ideas (taught in the Politics Department) see Note 2
Course/Subject id:	POL303
Level:	For 3r year students
Pre-requisites:	Some 2nd year philosophy
Start Date:	October or January
End Date:	December or June
Contact Hours:	1 lecture plus 1 seminar (1 hour) per week
ECTS Weighting:	8 ECTS credits
Course/Subject Outline:	This course is analytical rather than historical in character and examines some of the basic concepts of social and political thought such as justice, equality, freedom, rights, democracy, etc, giving attention to the varying ways in which these are interpreted in the work of contemporary political philosophers such as Rawls, Nozick and others.
Assessment:	1 x 2,500 word essay + 2 hour exam (half year)
Reading:	MH Brighouse, Justice S Mulhall and A Swift, Liberals and Communitarians (Second Edition) Rawls, A Theory of Justice
	...top
Course/Subject Name:	Dissertation
Course/Subject id:	PHIL353
Level:	For 3rd year students
Pre-requisites:	Some 2nd year philosophy or political theory
Start Date:	October or January
End Date:	January or April
Contact Hours:	Individual supervision
ECTS Weighting:	16 ECTS credits (10,000 word dissertation) 8 ECTS credits (5,000 word dissertation)
Course/Subject Outline:	On any topic as agreed with the supervising member of staff. The shorter dissertation is usual for visiting students, but exceptionally we may allow candidates to undertake the longer dissertation over one term.
Assessment:	Dissertation of either 5,000 or 10,000 words
Reading:	[Depends on perticular topic]
	...top
Course/Subject Name:	Special Subject
Course/Subject id:	PHIL351
Level:	For 3rd year students
Pre-requisites:	Some 2nd year philosophy or political theory
Start Date:	October or January
End Date:	January or April
Contact Hours:	2 hour seminar per week over 10 weeks
ECTS Weighting:	8 ECTS credits
Course/Subject Outline:	Various special subjects are offered by staff each year. Over ten weeks a particular topic or text is explored in seminar discussion. Relevant past topics have included: Philosophy of Law; Rawls; Kant's Critique of Practical Reason; Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality; Hannah Arendt.
Assessment:	5,000 word essay, or 4,000 word essay plus seminar preparation tasks
Reading:	[Depends on particular subject]
	...top

Note 1: PHIL213, PHIL223 and PHIL228 are usually offered every other year. At present it is planned to offer PHIL213 in 2007-08, and we expect to offer PHIL223 and PHIL228 in 2008-09

Note 2: Ethics, Applied Ethics, Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy, and Political Ideas are all run as full year courses for home students, from October to June. Visiting students take either the first term or second term of the course, depending on the timing of their visit. Each term lasts ten weeks: Michaelmas terms begins in early October and ends in mid-December, with exams by special arrangement for visiting students only; Lent term begins in early to mid January and runs to mid to late March, with exams in May and June.

...top