Learn 2024

This part of the module introduces the student to moral reasoning about contemporary practical issues.  It further encourages thinking about how morality intersects with our political views.

One interesting intersection between morality and practical issues is how civil law is designed to mirror the values of the society it serves but that the values themselves are mostly multifarious and often stand at odds with each other in the same society. In short, moral truth appears to be at least culturally relativised if not subject relative, whereas legal truth presents as objective or absolute. This means it is rationally impossible for the law to reflect moral values.

Students will investigate meta-ethical arguments about moral realism and anti-realism in order to understand the philosophical underpinnings of moral relativism. Is moral relativism true, or are there objective moral facts? The module will then turn to an introductory discussion of laws around corporal punishment in South Africa and the empirical basis for having banned all forms of corporal punishment.

The module asks the student to consider whether this absolute ruling against corporeal punishment is in violation of the subjective and cultural mores about child rearing in South Africa.