PPE4105 – Global Ethics and Human Rights
Contemporary international relations are normally understood as a struggle for power.
This course challenges this view and encourages students to think creatively about global events. Not only does it suggest that global politics can be understood in ethical terms; it shows that failure to do so can result in misguided action and even war. Illustrating the centrality of ethics to our understanding of global politics and global civil society through case studies, the course blends theory and practice and suggests that international actors (including states, organizations, and non-state actors) are regularly faced with ethical dilemmas.
The course considers a number of contemporary issues such as poverty, conflict, bioethics, the environment and gender. By looking at—and thinking about—these problems, students will be encouraged to confront their own ethical engagement as citizens and rights holders in an increasingly globalized society.
By the end of the course, students should:
- Be familiar with the basic ethical concepts and issues;
- Decide whether morality and ethics exist at the level of nation-states;
- Debate if and how citizens and states can make moral judgements;
- Understand the ethical effects of private and collective decision-making;
- Critically assess the key theoretical approaches to ethical questions and their value;
- Analyse and evaluate a variety of pressing moral problems;
- Understand the ethical dimensions of poverty, human rights, war, environment and gender;
- Assess the ethical implications of foreign policy decisions.