PHIL500 Philosophy of Religion

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent if undertaken at vacation or weekend schools.

Christian belief depends for its plausibility upon a number of philosophical assumptions, concerning the nature of reason and experience, of language, values and self. This unit aims to introduce students to these issues with reference to recent discussion and relevant episodes in the history of philosophy. The focus of the unit will be jointly upon philosophical theory and upon the application of such theory to particular issues of religious concern.

 

PHIL506 Ethics in a Faith-Based Context

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent.

The unit introduces students to practical ethical decision-making from the perspective of the Catholic moral tradition. The unit draws on the history of philosophical ethics along with examples of practical decision-making in order to enable students to develop their own response to the fundamental ethical question, “How should I live?” Case studies drawn from the specific context of the students’ professional experience and environment are examined and analysed. These cases are used as a means to engage classical contributors to the Catholic moral tradition.

 

PHIL507 The Philosophy of Human Rights

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil

The purpose of the unit is to encourage students to become philosophically reflective about the central concepts (such as ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’). Humanity has come to understand itself by coming to understand, with some precision and attention to distinctions, the crimes of which it is capable. It therefore matters that we give the right names to those crimes. To encourage students to see that this matters and why it matters is one of the main purposes of this unit. That purpose will not be realised, however, unless students also apply a philosophically critical gaze on fundamental conceptions about the nature of rights, justice and law and on the assumptions and theories of what is means to be human that inform those conceptions.

 

PHIL508 Impacts of Regulatory and Legal Frameworks

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation The unit will be developed through case studies involving input from experts, research, discussion and debate.

In this unit, students will come to know the regulatory environment in which health professionals work and will acquire a principled understanding of how best to respond to the challenges generated by regulation. The course will focus on the major predictable consequences of various regulations and on the sources of conflict between them.

 

PHIL509 Competing Interests, Choice and Conflict

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation The unit will be developed through presentations, case studies involving input from experts, research, discussion and debate and workshops with stimulus material.

This unit will identify kinds of problems encountered in decision making in health care contexts, and examine some methods for responding to those problems. It will consider the main contexts of conflict in tensions between the individual, the institution, Church and State; the main sources on conflict in modern social forces (business agendas and market pressures on health services) and in differing cultural beliefs (cultural diversity, alternative therapies, etc); and ethically-defensible approaches to handling these conflicts.

 

PHIL601 Research and Critical Thinking

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit introduces students to contemporary methods of critical reasoning and research tools to review current literature and to research a specific project. The unit covers the analysis and evaluation of argument in research in ethics, conceptual analysis, kinds of reasoning, explanation of common fallacies, practical syllogisms, etc. It also examines the kinds of tools available for research and how to write research papers in the humanities.

 

PHIL602 Problems in the Ethics of Health Care

20 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit examines debates about how ethical considerations should enter into health care practice. It considers a range of contemporary health issues and students will have the opportunity to focus on a particular area of interest. The unit considers such questions as beginning-of-life decisions, end-of-life decisions, critical care, reproductive medicine, psychiatric medicine, care of people with infectious diseases, gerontology, organ transplantation, gene therapy.

 

PHIL604 Issues in Philosophy of Religion

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as online, distance, lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading; 2 hours per week, or equivalent.

This unit will examine methods and issues in the philosophical study of religious practice and doctrine and the theological reflection thereon, concentrating on the Judaeo–Christian tradition. The unit will critically examine these topics both with a view to their intrinsic philosophical interest and with a view to their implications for theological studies.

 

PHIL605 Philosophy and the Moral Life

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit will introduce the student to the methods of moral philosophy, laying particular emphasis on the critical examination of the forms of moral understanding and the nature of moral argument and reasoning. It will provide a critical introduction to some of the key ethical theories developed in the history of philosophy.

 

PHIL606 Values, Beliefs and Practical Ethics

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit will survey some of the major faith traditions and their approach to a range of questions of morals and values. These approaches will be compared and contrasted to Christian treatments of such questions. Contemporary ethical theory will provide a context for this examination of different religious traditions through the discussion of such issues as the nature of moral reasoning, and the plausibility of various forms of ethical relativism.

 

PHIL607 Issues in Resource Allocation

20 cp
Prerequisites PHIL601 Research and Critical Thinking
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit concerns the wide-ranging issues confronting most walks of life, in connection with the distribution of resources. There are differences in the way such issues can arise at different levels of social organisation - the state, civil social associations and institutions, and in the delivery of services. A philosophical engagement with economic theory of markets, their place and limits, and the place of non-economic values in resource distribution, is needed to see how these issues can be addressed. Issues of narrow and wide definitions of areas of social activities, such as work, public health and welfare, are most important when considering the interaction of values in the organisation of systems for the distribution of wealth.

 

PHIL608 Pluralism, State and Civil Society

20 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

The main focus of this unit is the debate in contemporary Western democracies over the question of what is properly a matter of private morality and what is properly a matter of public policy and law - the debate over liberty and authority. The first part of this double unit will consider the liberal and communitarian conceptions of self and society which inform this debate, together with specific cases where personal liberty and political and legal authority appear to be in conflict. In the second part, students will be given an opportunity for an extended study of a particular area of professional interest, suggested by one or other of the areas studied in the first part.

 

PHIL609 Principles of Bioethics

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit introduces students to the fundamental principles of bioethics such as, patient autonomy and the dignity of the person, and to the elementary principles of justice. It will also consider such issues as informed consent, confidentiality and the disclosure of information, as well as duty of care, law and health care practice.

 

PHIL610 Social Philosophy of Health Care

10 cp
Prerequisites PHIL601 Research and Critical Thinking, PHIL605 Philosophy and the Moral Life
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

In this unit, the institutional nature of the system for the delivery of healthcare is examined. This involves two elements: the institutions within healthcare and the relationships between them; and the relationship between this system and the wider community.

 

PHIL611 Philosophy of Medicine

10 cp
Prerequisites PHIL601 Research and Critical Thinking
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit considers the epistemological and metaphysical questions which arise when medicine and its branches are thought of as science. The claims of so-called evidence-based medicine as an improvement on traditional medical methods of differential selection of therapeutic intervention and the claims of so-called “alternative medicines”, in both diagnostics and therapeutics are examined. Ethical questions arise when metaphysical and epistemological claims are made by medical science about human nature and the treatment of illness and these will be discussed. In addition, there are ethical issues involved in the consideration of the credibility of knowledge claims or claims to scientificity of medicine, its branches and its alternatives.

 

PHIL612 Theories of Business Ethics

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit gives an overview of the emergence of capitalist free enterprise or business as a defining feature of most modern Western societies and explores the implications which some of the major theories of moral philosophy such as utilitarianism, Kantianism, virtue ethics, and Natural Law have for the practice of business in market economies together with an examination of some of the key challenges to the value of that practice that are posed by Marxist, environmental, feminist and communitarian perspectives. Particular reference will be made throughout to the tradition of Catholic social teaching and its effects on capitalism and business.

 

PHIL613 Business Ethics and Political Philosophy

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit will critically examine the relationship between business ethics and political philosophy. Particular attention will be paid to the impact which Libertarian, Liberal and Communitarian concepts of social justice, the State and citizenship have had on our understanding of the ethics of business practice in the second half of the twentieth century.

 

PHIL614 Moral Issues in Business

10 cp
Prerequisites PHIL601 Research and Critical Thinking, PHIL605 Philosophy and the Moral Life
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

In this unit students will undertake a detailed critical examination of one of the major areas of Business Ethics which may be related to their own professional field. Students will have the opportunity to apply some of the theories studied in other units to particular issues in the professional field in which they have experience and expertise.

 

PHIL615 Ethics, Capitalism and Globalisation

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

The modern capitalist economy is, in part, the result of the growth of technology and industrial power but also social change. Moreover, a capitalist economy could be seen as the solution to stubborn social problems: poverty, inequality, inefficient social organisation. The first half of the unit examines these arguments, and tests them against modern social reality. The second half addresses how capitalism must be re-evaluated in the light of the rapidly increasing globalisation of business: the loss of control of national governments, the absence of an effective international regulatory order; the development of trade blocs, and of e-commerce. Throughout, emphasis will be on the ethical issues raised rather than on technical or purely economic considerations – but some attention to economic theory will be necessary.

 

PHIL616 Special Study

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

This unit offers studies in a specialised area of philosophical research closely connected with applied ethics which is being undertaken by a present member of staff or a visiting scholar. The unit will provide students with the opportunity to develop their philosophical knowledge in one of the areas of applied ethics studied in the Master of Arts (Applied Ethics). Student requirements will vary according to the expertise of the staff member or visiting scholar teaching the unit.

 

PHIL617 One Unit Project

10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

Students will be given an opportunity to research a specific topic in applied ethics that is of particular interest or significance in their professional area. The topic of the project will be approved by the course coordinator in consultation with the student and lecturer in charge of the unit.

 

PHIL618 Two Unit Project

20 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation A variety of modes such as lectures, tutorials, seminars, and directed reading.

Students will be given an opportunity to do some extended research in a specific topic in applied ethics that is of particular interest or significance in their professional area. The topic of the project will be approved by the course coordinator in consultation with the student and lecturer in charge of the unit.

 

PHIL619 Philosophical Foundations and Ministry 10 cp

Prerequisites Nil
This unit provides a broad introduction to the philosophical foundations of theology and of the theoretical aspects of ministry. The contributions of several branches of philosophy are studied in order to provide students with the skills to analyse and structure arguments and to reflect on how different metaphysical and epistemological perspectives affect practical decision-making in ministry. An important component of this unit is a philosophical examination of some of the central concepts for ministry such as justice, the common good, democracy and human rights.