PHIL 1103 - Morality, Society and the Individual

Morality plays a part in everyone's life. But what exactly is it, and why is it important? Are there any objective, universal moral truths, or are moral rightness and wrongness in some way relative to societies, or to individuals? Can morality be grounded in religion, or in facts about human nature? This course will ask what constraints a society is morally entitled to impose on its individual members, and what kinds of freedom from interference individuals are entitled to claim from their society. It will also ask how it is possible that anything really matters, if the universe does not itself have a purpose. The course will introduce you to some of the most influential answers that philosophers have given to these questions, and to the arguments they have used to defend their views. But its main aim is to help you to answer them clearly for yourself.