Module manager: Jack Woods III
Email: J.Woods@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
This module is not approved as a discovery module
This module aims to introduce students to some of the major metaethcial theories, issues, and debates of the 20th century and assist them in developing their philosophical and analytic skills. At the most basic level, we might say that metaethics concerns whether moral realism or some such rival as expressivism or error theory is true. In this area, philosophers address such "metaethical" questions as these: - What do moral terms like "good" and "morally right" and judgements using them mean? - Do moral terms and judgements express moral properties, and if so, what are these properties like? - Are any moral judgements true, and if so, are they true objectively, in virtue of moral properties that exist in the world? - If there are objective moral truths, how can we know what they are? - What implications do theories of practical reason and human motivation have for the question whether there are objective truths in ethics?
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. show a good understanding of central concepts, issues, and positions in metaethics
2. interpret and critically analyse arguments on metaethical topics and develop their own position in relation to these issues
3. express these philosophical and analytical skills in a written essay.
Topics to be covered may typically include:
- Meaning, truth and knowledge in ethics
- The nature of moral judgement
- The nature of normativity
- Non-cognitivism, cognitivism, eliminativism, projectivism
- Realism, anti-realism, skepticism and antiskepticism
- Relativism and antirelativism
- Moral psychology
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Lecture | 18 | 1 | 18 |
| Seminar | 9 | 1 | 9 |
| Private study hours | 173 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 27 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
- Interactive lecture and Seminar preparation: 63 hours
- Essay preparation: 60 hours
- Associated reading: 50 hours
1000 word essay draft
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 3000 words (end of module) | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 1/22/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team