| Unit name | Ethics and Literature |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PHIL30094 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Finn Spicer |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
PHIL10005: Introduction to Philosophy A, PHIL 10006: Introduction to Philosophy B, PHIL20046: Realism and Normativity |
| Co-requisites |
none |
| School/department | Department of Philosophy |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will explore central topics within ethics, through critical engagement with a range of literary sources and philosophical texts. Drawing on plays, short stories, novels, and essays, the course will explore the subjects of retribution and revenge; interpersonal conflict and reconciliation; moral responsibility and free will; and the nature of happiness and the good life.
Some of the central questions we will be asking are: what premises are used by agents to justify seeking revenge and retribution, and what competing pictures of justice are agents assuming when arguing for or against forgiveness? What circumstances must hold for agents to be morally responsible for what they do? To what extent are we the authors of our actions? Finally, turning to happiness and the good life, we will ask: what makes a human life go well? In what ways do external circumstances like poverty and poor relationships constrain human prospects, and what circumstances promote human flourishing?
The final part of the course will involve applying some tools of textual analysis commonly used in the study of literature, to think about rhetoric, composition and dramatic form in philosophical writing.
At the end of the unit, students will be able to:
1. articulate, compare and critique alternative theoretical accounts of moral responsibility, retribution, and forgiveness
2. understand competing approaches to thinking about happiness and its relationship to the good life
3. think critically about some of the ways that social circumstances either promote or discourage human flourishing.
Students will have:
4. engaged thoughtfully with several classic works of literature and philosophy, and will be able to:
5. articulate their central themes.
Finally, they will be able to:
6. analyse both literary and philosophical pieces through close attention to text, compositional structure and rhetoric.
10 weekly 1-hr lectures, plus 10 weekly 1-hr seminars; 20 minutes feedback on formative essay
by exam: 3 questions in 3 hours
The exam will be designed to test intended learning outcomes (1), (2), (3), (5) and (6).
In addition to lectures and seminars, we will have a series of movie nights, with screenings of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Kushner’s Angels in America, and Hank Rogerson’s documentary Shakespeare Behind Bars.
