This course introduces students to some of the basic problems that arise in trying to understand that specific kind of thinking that is moral thinking. Everyone - well, nearly everyone - goes in for moral thinking: they say (for instance) that racism or terrorism or homosexuality is wrong, that compassion makes you a good person, that people have a right to education or shelter. But what does it mean to say that something is wrong or good or that people have a right to it? How, if at all, can we find out whether something is wrong or good or that people have a right to it? Are right and wrong 'all subjective', 'just a matter of feeling', so that child abuse is wrong only in so far as you, or some folk, happen to feel disgusted by it? Are people capable of acting morally or, deep down, is everyone selfish?
Emphasis in the course will be on understanding these issues rather than acquiring any particular response to them. Part of the course will focus on a classsic text; other parts will concentrate on more general questions about moral and political philosophy, and about some contemporary moral issues. No particular moral standpoint is required in students taking the course, nor are students expected to come out of the course with any particular moral standpoint. The aim is to learn think critically and reflectively about the issues.