3.11 G582: A2 Religious Ethics

Ethical Topics and Theories: Meta-ethics

Meta-ethics Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the use of ethical language – the ways in which different scholars understand how
words like ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘right’, ‘wrong’ areused when ethical statements are made;
• how meta-ethics differs from normative ethics;
• the different approaches: cognitive and noncognitive; ethical naturalism, intuitionism;
emotivism and prescriptivism and how these apply to ethical statements.
Candidates should be able to discuss these areas critically and their strengths and
weaknesses.

Ethical Topics and Theories: Free Will and Determinism

Free will and determinism Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• hard determinism, soft determinism and libertarianism;
• the views of Darrow, Honderich, Hume and Locke;
• theological determinism (predestination) and religious ideas of free will;
• the influences of genetics, psychology, environment or social conditioning on moral
choices;
• the implications of these views for moral responsibility;
• the link between free will, determinism and moral responsibility.
Candidates should be able to discuss these areas critically and their strengths and
weaknesses.

Ethical Topics and Theories: Nature and Role of the Conscience

The nature and role of the conscience Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the different views of the conscience as Godgiven, innate or the voice of reason or instilled by society, parents, authority figures;
• whether conscience is a reliable guide to ethical decision-making;
• the views of Augustine, Aquinas, Butler, Newman, Freud, Fromm, Piaget.
Candidates should be able to discuss these views critically and their strengths and
weaknesses

Ethical Topics and Theories: Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the principles of Virtue Ethics from Aristotle;
• the ‘agent-centred’ nature of Virtue Ethics;
• the concepts of eudaimonia and the Golden Mean;
• the importance of practising the virtues and the example of virtuous people;
• more modern approaches to Virtue Ethics.
Candidates should be able to discuss these areas critically and their strengths and
weaknesses.

Applied Ethics

The ethical theories:
• Natural Law;
• Kantian Ethics;
• Utilitarianism;
• Religious Ethics;
• Virtue Ethics;
as applied to all the applied ethics topics listed below.

Environmental and business ethics

Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the issue of how humans should relate to the environment, its resources and species;
• secular approaches – the Gaia hypothesis;
• issues in business ethics: the relationship between business and consumers; the
relationship between employers and employees;
• the relationship between business and the environment; business and globalisation;
• the application and the different approaches of the ethical theories listed above to
environmental and business ethics.
Candidates should be able to discuss these areas critically.

Sexual ethics

Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the issues surrounding sexual ethics –
premarital and extramarital sex, contraception, homosexuality;
• the application and the different approaches of the ethical theories listed above to sexual ethics.
Candidates should be able to discuss these areas critically.