Admission requirements
Admission to this course is restricted to:
BA students in Philosophy: Global and Comparative Perspectives, who have successfully completed at least 70 ECTS credits of the mandatory components of the first and second year of their bachelor’s programme, including Philosophical Skills and one of the following combinations: Logic and Epistemology OR Ethics and Political Phlosophy.
BA students in Filosofie, who have successfully completed at least 70 ECTS credits of the mandatory components of the first and second year of their bachelor’s programme, including Filosofische vaardigheden and one of the following combinations: Logica and Epistemologie OR Ethiek and Politieke filosofie.
Pre-master’s students in Philosophy who are in possession of an admission statement and who have to complete an advanced seminar.
Description
Metaethics concerns the most fundamental philosophical questions that are raised by reflection on ethics. Thus, whereas ethicists ask questions such as ‘how should one live?’ and ‘what should I do?’, metaethics ask questions like ‘what do moral judgments mean?’ (moral semantics), ‘are there moral truths?’ (moral metaphysics) and ‘how do we gain moral knowledge?’ (moral epistemology).
In this course, we study core texts in metaethics, and we discuss and assess the most important metaethical theories that are currently discussed in the literature, such as emotivism, expressivism, naturalist and non-naturalist realism, and the error theory.
We will engage with many influential philosophers, including, but not limited to, Sharon Street, A.J. Ayer, Richard Joyce, J.L. Mackie, Simon Blackburn, Peter Railton, David Lewis, Jonas Olson, David Enoch, Michael Huemer, and Ronald Dworkin. We will also consider the method of contemporary metaethics as well as some recent developments, including, but not limited to, issues in meta-metaethics.
Course objectives
This course aims to:
give students an overview of and introduction to the metaphysical, epistemological and semantic questions that we can ask about ethics;
introduce students to a number of central (historical and contemporary) primary texts in metaethics;
train students to analyse primary texts and to write compelling, argumentative papers in metaethics.
Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:
the most important theories in metaethics, including but not limited to emotivism, expressivism, naturalist and non-naturalist realism, and the error theory;
the strengths and weaknesses of each of these theories.
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:
- form a considered judgment about these theories and other issues in metaethics and to defend their position with valid and compelling arguments.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminars.
Class attendance is required.
Assessment method
Assessment
- Final essay
Attendance is required – without sufficient attendance students will be excluded from submitting a final paper.
Weighing
- Final essay (100%)
To pass the course, the grade must be 5.5 or higher
Resit
The resit will consist of a final essay (100%).
Attendance is required – without sufficient attendance students will be excluded from taking the resit.
Students without sufficient attendance or who have a passing grade for the first attempt will be excluded from the resit.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
The reading list will be posted on Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: [Huizinga](https://www.organisatiegids.universiteitleiden.nl/en/faculties-and-institutes/humanities/faculty-office/student-affairs/education-administration-offices#huizinga
Remarks
Not applicable.