Official Course Description

Critical study of the theories and methods that sociology provides for the analysis of ethical questions. Study of the wider historical, social and cultural contexts in which ethical questions emerge and are reproduced. Course Objectives The goal of the course is to help students develop an understanding of the relationship between ethical questions and the different social forms that structure social interaction. Thus our object will not be to apply the ethical reasoning schemas of philosophy to social questions. Instead in the course we will explore the distinctive ways in which sociologists have framed and conceptualised ethical questions, and their relevance to contemporary ethical conundrums. Some of the questions that will be addressed are as follows: 1. How can we account for explosion of contemporary ethical discourses? 2. What types of social arrangements have grounded ethical relationships in the past? 3. How has sociology analysed the relationship between normativity and society? 4. What light can sociology shed on some contemporary ethical debates