How do you decide what is good and bad? What is right and wrong? What is fair?
Is it simply about using your intuition or do you follow moral rules or principles? Are personal or religious beliefs important?
These are all ethical questions. What do they really mean and can philosophy shed some light on these questions?
This course will explore some key ideas on the philosophy of Justice. We will look at some examples of famous ethical dilemmas and some key principles that can be adopted to help us make decisions. We will examine and challenge the theories of utilitarianism and deontology, as well as the ideas of Plato on the nature of Justice.
This course is ideal for those who like to discuss and reflect on these important ethical questions and how they relate to our world today.
More detailed outline of sessions:
Week 1 What is ethics? Exploring ethical dilemmas.
Week 2 What is Utilitarianism? Introducing the philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Exploring hedonism and the pleasure-pain principle. How does this relate to justice?
Week 3 The strengths and weaknesses of Utilitarianism. How relevant is this theory to modern day issues?
Week 4 What is Deontology? Introducing Immanual Kant and his view of ethics. How does this view relate to justice? The strengths and weaknesses of Deontology. How relevant is this theory to modern day issues?
Week 5 What does Plato say about Justice? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these ideas? How relevant are they to modern day issues?
Week 6 Applied Ethics. Applying the theories to some contemporary issues of justice- including lying, stealing, animal rights and war.
Pen and paper.
Please get in touch if you have any additional needs that would be helpful for us to know about, and we will try to arrange adjustments for you to better access the workshop. If you need to bring a carer with you, please let us know in advance so we can ensure there is enough space. Email us on admin@bristolfolkhouse.co.uk or call us on 01179262987.
Please note: All 10, and 12 week courses have a half term break in the middle. For term dates please visit our Contact us page. We are not open on bank holiday Mondays and any class that falls on these days will be made up at the end of term.
Fees
Refunds
Please see full terms and conditions for more information.
Latecomer
If a course has already started, please call the office as it may be possible to join after the start date. This may only be possible if the course is not already full, if it is not disruptive for the other students and you are aware that you have missed a percentage of the course and the tutor will not have time to catch you up. This will be at discretion of the Folk House. We run our courses termly, so it might be best to start at the beginning of the course.
Levels
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