What makes us human?
Instinct versus freedom.
The society versus the individual
Values for living together.
Values and norms. What are the differences between moral values and moral norms and other kinds of values and norms?
Fundamental, civil and political rights included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Justice as the supreme political value.
Democracy and civic education: participation, tolerance and respect for the law.
Ethics: thinking our morality.
The origins of Ethics: Socrates and the sophists
Epicurus
Aristotle
Applying ethics to current problems:
Bioethics: euthanasia, genetic selection.
Animal rights and environmental obligations.
Economic globalization and human rights.
Do we not already know what is good and what is bad? We can pass that test easily. Compare with other subjects: we study mathematics or English because we arrive at school without knowing them.
Have we not learned morality in the family, from our friends, living in a society? Morality is learned as part of our growth in our society.
But, Do we really know or we just have an opinion? Is it possible to draw a distinction between moral knowledge and moral opinion?
In addition to conflicts or individual dilemmas, there are also moral conflicts in society, between people who disagree about what is right and wrong. There are many applications of Ethics to today's society. If we learn morality by following what other people tells or teaches us, what we read or see, what seems best to us or because of our religious beliefs, it is not surprising that different people have different opinions:
People with different religions
People from different cultures
People from different places
People with different ages, with different jobs, etc.
What can we do when we disagree?
Ethics propose us to reason, to debate and try to reach an agreement. Even if we do not share the same religion, or the same culture, the same country, the same age or job.
Euthanasia
Genetic selection
Using animals in medical research
Animal rights
Rights of future generations
Tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, the limits of tolerance
Positive discrimination and the rights of the minorities
Ethics in the workplace and business ethics
The "intuitive" knowledge we have of moral values and norms is not as complete and precise as we might think at first. We can easily find ourselves in situations where we do not know what we should do or what is more correct to do.
Generally accepted moral norms such as The Golden Rule do not solve our doubts and each person can interpret it according to what he or she considers good and just.
There is no consensus or agreement on many moral issues, neither within our society, nor when we compare different societies.
Morality is not fixed but changes: what we consider good or just today is not the same as what was considered good and just centuries or only some years ago.
We must understand differences of opinion in moral issues between different cultures. For this we will study the relationship between morality and culture and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a foundation for respect among cultures.