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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Christine Straehle
Event type:
Interactive class
Displayed in timetable as:
Ethics
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
English
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
More information:
Registration period for first-semester students Mon, 10 October 2022, 9 am to Thu, 13 October 2022, 4 pm
Comments/contents:
Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with judgments about right and wrong, good and bad, rights and duties.
In this course, we consider the moral justifications for public policy decisions, at the domestic and international levels. As students of public policy and responsible public actors, we must be careful to understand the moral implications of the policy choices that we make. This course intends to provide students with the critical thinking skills essential to understanding the moral challenges posed by public policy making, as well as the moral responsibilities we have as decision-makers in the public sphere.
In the first part of the course, students will be exposed to the normative concepts needed to ethcially evaluate public policy decisions: consequential moral theory and non-consequential moral theory. In the second part of the course, we will assess the normative challenges posed by key public policy issues at the domestic level. In the third part of the course, we will assess the normative challenges posed by key public policy issues at the international level. Each week, students will be introduced to key normative concepts, which will be essential in guiding the normative reasoning that we will explore, including these: rights, freedom, equality and democracy. These concepts are essential to understanding how we balance competing values in the public sphere, which will inevitably conflict, as for example is illustrated in the following questions: How should we balance freedom of religion against gender equality? How should we balance freedom of speech against democratic rule? How should we balance humanitarian intervention against state sovereignty?
The course is designed for the 1st semester PEP MSc students and will be in English.
Additional examination information:
TAKE-HOME EXAM:
First exam: 7 February 2023, 10:00 am-12:00 am
Second exam: 29 March 2023, 10:00 am-12:00 am
The examiner will provide information about the hand out of exam tasks and their submission.
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