Metaethics

This course is part of specialisation (verdiepingspakket) Ethics and Politics.

For students who study LAS and TCS and take this course as part of their major, a mandatory preparation is required. See https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/. Meta-ethics is an advanced subject in philosophy, requiring knowledge of developments in normative ethics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and metaphysics. This course is not open to students who haven't taken an introduction in ethics. It is most recommended to take normative ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language as a preparation for this course.

Meta-ethics is the part of ethics that concerns itself with the ontological and epistemological status of moral judgements. In other words, meta-ethics is a theoretical reflection on what people when they make moral judgments and try to justify those with normative ethical principles. Are all moral judgements subjective, or is there something objective about morality? Is morality relative to people's culture and history? Are there such things as moral facts of which we can have knowledge? If so, what grounds these facts and knowledge? In this course, the most important positions and arguments will be introduced and discussed.

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At the end of the course, students will be able to

1. read primary and secondary metaethical literature independently, and to reconstruct and comment on the central arguments in this literature;
2. distinguish central positions and define the technical terminology in contemporary metaethics, including moral semantics, moral ontology, moral epistemology and moral psychology;
3. formulate a focused research question in metaethics and generate a well-structured written paper in which a position is defended or critiqued;
4. describe and explain the most important advantages and shortcomings of central positions in metaethics, both orally and in writing;
5. create an independent line of argumentation in favor of (or against) positions in metaethics or any of its sub-disciplines;
6. explain and discuss the practical importance, or lack thereof, of positions in metaethics.

This course is part of the specialisation (verdiepingspakket) Ethics and Politics, which consists of the following four courses: History of ethics/Politics (blok 1), normative ethics (blok 2), meta-ethics (blok 3), contemporary political philosophy (blok 4). In meta-ethics, the following skills are trained: aural presentation, collaboration with fellow students in preparing a big class discussion, and academic writing skills. As of 2020-21 meta-ethics will be taught in English.

You must meet the following requirements

• Completed all course modules listed below
• Philosophical Ethics (FI1V19001)

• Yet to be specified