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On successful completion of the module, students should be able to:
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differentiate various meanings and uses for the concept of law, such as, the moral law, state law, natural-scientific law, religious law.
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assess the purpose of state law, with refence to its role in morality, and John Stuart Mill’s alternative ‘harm-to-others principle’ in On Liberty (1859) as the sole justification for state intervention in the lives of its citizens.
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distinguish the concept of punishment from its moral justification, and discuss the retributive, reformative, and deterrent theories of punishment.
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explain and determine the effectiveness of the use of metaphors in the debate on crime and punishment such as: ‘balancing the scales of justice’, ‘wiping the slate clean’, ‘paying a debt back to society’ etc.
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describe the main historical factors that influenced the development of the concept of rights: 13th-century Natural Law theory (Aquinas); 17th-century Social Contract theories (Hobbes and Locke); and the 17th- and 18th-century English, American and French revolutions.
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recognise and evaluate different definitions for the meaning of the concept of a right (as a liberty; a permission; a claim; a judicial remedy; a power; an interest; a relative duty) used in contemporary moral discourse.
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analyse and evaluate particular controversial rights, such as: the right to revolt, the right to peace, the right to life, the right to euthanasia, the right to eat animals, animal rights, the right to use nature’s resources in the planet, ecological rights.
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engage in argument about issues of moral concern in society today, taking into consideration the complexity of our moral discourse.
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TOPICS IN MORAL PHILOSOPHY: LAW, MORALITY, PUNISHMENT & RIGHTS
