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This section will cover a variety of areas, from how to recognise, analyse, and construct good arguments, to how to critically assess information you’re given. We will learn about common fallacies of reasoning, and how to identify arguments, as well as different types of arguments, and how to evaluate them. You will also learn how to construct strong arguments of your own. Finally, we will look at various arguments from the news and other sources, and learn how to tell whether they are reliable or not.

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.   

Overview of module content:

 Some concepts analysed in philosophical texts are relevant not only to the theories in which they appear, but are also relevant to society itself. One of these is ‘justice’. Since this module exposes students to a study of concepts, issues and debates in social and political philosophy it is perfectly poised to investigate ‘justice’.  

In particular, this module will only focus on socio-economic justice. Different political theories have distinct concepts of socio-economic justice (from now referred to only as ‘justice’). For instance, liberalism connects justice to individual freedom, and suggests that all other types of justice are a function of individual freedom. So, for liberalism, justice is dependent on political structures which maximise the freedoms and human rights of the individual. But such a conception of justice, others argue, leads to injustice in society as it does not account for a range of socio-economic inequalities which naturally occur in free societies. For these theorists, justice cannot be tied to individual freedom but should rather be tied to concepts of community, or communitarianism, or communism.

 To this end the student will investigate various academic papers; analysing distinct political philosophies and their conceptions of justice.

 Learning outcomes:

 By the end of this part of the module the student will be able to:

        I.          Discuss Marx’s idea of capital, or capitalism, as a source of social dysfunction (which will be interpreted as ‘injustice’ in this module)

      II.          Discuss Rawl’s concept of justice and fairness, as underpinned by his liberalism

    III.          Discuss Letseka’s critique of Rawlsian justice as compatible with an Ubuntu conception of justice, even though Ubuntu is a communitarian theory

   IV.          Discuss Young’s criticism of socio-economic justice as redistribution, and her advocacy of a pluralist, or multifaceted view of justice

This module involves executing philosophical research and then producing a research project or dissertation. The topic of research is to be discussed with your supervisor.

The module will take on the form of a supervisory relationship with a lecturer in your department, instead of a seminar module or a lecture-based module.

You will be expected to work independently on your research, under the supervision of a lecturer. This includes, but is not limited to the following tasks:

        I.          Writing a research proposal which reflects the aims, actions and outcomes of your planned research

      II.          Applying for ethical clearance on UKZN’s RIG system

    III.          Meeting with your supervisor, as per the agreement between you (you will be provided a memorandum of understanding). These meetings are to discuss the progress of your work.

    IV.          Submitting work timeously so that ongoing formative feedback can be provided to throughout the semester.

     V.          Finding your own sources

    VI.          Submitting the final, many times revised, research project at the end of the semester, by the designated submission date. The assessment thereof will be both internal and externally done.