Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona

Ethics

• code 08851
• course 2
• term Semester 1
• type FB
• credits 6

Module: Humanities

Matter: The individual and society

Main language of instruction: Catalan

Other languages of instruction: Spanish

Head instructor

Dra. Magdalena BOSCH - mbosch@uic.es

Office hours

By appointment. In order to make an appointment, please request one by mail.

The most frequent problems in our personal and professional activities are usually not really professional, in a technical sense. They are often human problems like: how to act correctly, how to maintain good relationships with other people. The subject “Ethics” is the space to study and think about this.

No pre-course requirements are needed to enrol in this subject.

The main objectives in this subject are:

1. To provide students with theoretical tools for the analysis of human behavior.

2. To introduce students into the use of the basic elements of moral thought and the main concepts in ethics.

• E24 - Ability to present the results of research project in accordance with the standards of each subject area.
• E25 - Ability to communicate orally in one's own language and other languages using the terminology and resources accepted in the cultural framework of each language
• G05 - To act responsibly and produce high-quality, rigorous and efficient work that benefits society.
• G06 - To demonstrate an ability to be open and flexible with regards to cultural and socil diversity.
• E01 - Ability to provide a humanistic/cultural vision to other sciences or methods.
• E02 - Ability to use methods and techniques specific to human sciences.
• E06 - Awareness of and respect for different points of view resulting from cultural and social diversity.
• G01 - To analyse and interpret social and cultural environments to identify need, opportunities, weaknesses and strenghts..
• G02 - To lead, cooordinate and form part of interdisciplinary work teams.
• G03 - To search for and/or administer economic resources within the framework of an institution or company, or a cultural programmes, project or service.
• G04 - To know how to communicate, encourage and mediate between the various agents involved in a cultural project, programme or service.
• G07 - To know how to apply and adapt to new technologies in processes of cultural management, production and dissemination.

Students who enrol in this subject will:

- Develop their capacity to identify ethical values and exercise ethical judgments.

- Learn to identify and solve practical problems and make correct decisions.

1. Introduction to the history of moral thought

2. The finality of our actions. What does it mean to be happy?

3. Virtue. Is virtue incompatible with pleasure?

4. Voluntary and involuntary actions. The risk of being free.

5. Analysis of ethical virtues. What makes a person nice and admirable? Is there a value to be nice?

6. Intellectual virtues. Are reason and feelings always contradictory? What’s moral conscience?

7. Friendship. What kind of relationship constitutes friendship? Does to need friends mean to be needy?

8. Pleasure and happiness. How can we distinguish between the two?

Three different methodological resources are used in this subject:

1. Interactive class, raising the previous knowledge of the students

2. Theoretical class, explaining the main concepts

3. Analysis of practical cases

30% of work in class or at home

30% composition of an essay 

40 % Final exam

(Students must obtain a passing mark of 5, in order to pass the final exam)

ARENDT, H., La condición humana, Paidós, Barcelona, 1993. 
ARISTÓTELES, Ética a Nicómaco. Ed. bilingüe, Instituto de Estudios Políticos, Madrid, 1970.

CICERÓN, De los deberes

                  De la amistad

                  De la vejez
GRISEZ, G., y SHAW, R., Ser persona. Curso de Ética, Rialp, Madrid, 1993.

LLANO, A.; La vida lograda, Ariel, Barcelona 2006
MACINTYRE, A., Tras la virtud, Crítica, Barcelona, 1987.

                            Tres versiones rivales de le ética, Rialp, Madrid 1992
MARÍAS, J. La felicidad humana, Alianza, Madrid, 1989.

M. MAURI, Bien humano y moralidad, PPU, Barcelona 1989

MENSCH, J., Ethics and Selfhood. Alterity and the Phenomenology of Obligation, State University of New York Press, NY, 2003.

PIEPER, J. Las virtudes fundamentales, Rialp, Madrid, 1980. 

SENECA, Sobre la felicidad, Alianza, Madrid 1997
SPAEMANN, R., Ética. Cuestiones fundamentales, Eunsa, Pamplona, 1995.

TAYLOR, Ch.; La ética de la autenticidad, Paidós, Barcelona 1994