2005 Handbooks

The unit focuses on philosophical debates concerning a range of pressing contemporary social and ethical issues. Topics to be addressed include: euthanasia, abortion, reproductive and genetic ethics, pornography and free speech, and environmental ethics. Discussion of these topics is structured around an examination of a number of key philosophical concepts, including: the boundaries of life and death; notions of harm; conceptions of autonomy and freedom; conceptions of the body and the person; and notions of discrimination. Although there are scientific, technological, legal, political and religious dimensions to many of the issues discussed, the unit aims primarily to develop an understanding of some of the specifically philosophical/conceptual problems that they raise, as well as to provide a critical comparison of a number of different philosophical approaches to them, (for example, feminist, liberal, utilitarian and rights-based).