[NB: de cursus Kant's Moral Philosophy vervangt de eerder aangegeven cursus Libertarisme]
Admission requirements
Admission to this course is restricted to:
BA students in Philosophy, who have successfully completed their first year, and who have also completed at least 10 EC’s of the mandatory components of their second year, including Political Philosophy.
Pre-master’s students in Philosophy for whom this course has been specified on their admission statement.
Description
This course will be devoted to a comprehensive review of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. His moral theory is well-known for downgrading feelings and inclinations (or empirical desires) in favor of reason, indeed “pure” reason. Accordingly, empirical knowledge of human agency, or empirical psychology, is often held to be irrelevant to his moral theory. This is especially due to his “Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals” and “Critique of Practical Reason” – to which we will first turn. However, in his doctrine of virtue (in the “Metaphysics of Morals”) and his “Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View”, Kant discusses the significance of empirical, psychological conditions for moral agency, by arguing, for instance, that our sympathetic feelings have a positive role in moral agency. Special attention will be paid to these discussions and Kant’s understanding of the relationship between the empirical perspective and the pure perspective in his doctrine of virtue.
Course objectives
This course aims to examine Kant’s moral philosophy.
Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:
the basic notions, which Kant uses to explain “pure morality”, such as autonomy and the categorical imperative;
the key notions, which Kant uses to describe how human beings apply moral laws in real-life situations, such as virtue, moral ends, autocracy, sympathy, conscience, moral strength and moral weakness.
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:
- explain the difference and the relation between the pure and the empirical perspective in Kant’s moral philosophy.
Timetable
See: BA Filosofie
- Filosofie, BA3 – BA Plus-traject or Standaardtraject
Mode of instruction
- Seminars
Class attendance is required.
Course Load
Total course load 10 EC x 28 hours = 280 hours
Attending seminars (13 x 3 hours): 39 hours
Preparation seminars / studying literature: 120 hours
Preparation presentation and writing papers: 121 hours
Assessment method
Assessment
Presentation with handout or PowerPoint (15%)
Midterm paper (35%)
Final paper (50%)
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determination of the weighted average of several subtests.
Resit
If the final mark is unsatisfactory, there is an option for re-examination by writing a 5000 word paper.
The mark for the resit will replace all previously earned marks for subtests. No separate resits will be offered for mid-term test. Class participation and the presentation are required for taking the resit. Students who have obtained a satisfactory grade for the first examination cannot take the resit.
Exam review
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.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for:
course information
PowerPoint presentations
Reading list
To be announced.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website
Students are strongly advised to register in uSis through the activity number which can be found in the timetables for courses and exams.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable.
Contact
Dr. M. Vujosevic
To be announced.
Remarks
Not applicable.