Postgraduate Course: Philosophy of Well-Being MSc (PHIL11155)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will examine well-being, a central issue in moral philosophy.
Shared with undergraduate course Philosophy of Well-Being PHIL10152.
For courses co-taught with undergraduate students and with no remaining undergraduate spaces left, a maximum of 8 MSc students can join the course. Priority will be given to MSc students who wish to take the course for credit on a first come first served basis after matriculation.
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| Course description |
The course has two (roughly equal) parts:
Part 1: In this part we examine the main theories of well-being. These include hedonism, desire-fulfillment theory, objective-list theory, perfectionism. We will also look at some more recently developed theories, including hybrid theories.
Part 2: In this part we examine some general theoretical issues connected to well-being. These include: attempts to understand how well-being differs from other kinds of evaluation (moral, aesthetic, etc) and scepticism about the concept of well-being. We will also look at whether well-being is holistic by examining whether lifetime well-being is some simple function from momentary well-being (the 'shape of a life' debate). We will also examine how time and death connect to well-being, by looking at issues such as the timing of prudential goods, whether (and why) death is bad for us, and whether posthumous events can impact well-being (and, if so, how).
**Tutorials for PG students will happen on Tuesday 9th February and Tuesday 29th March 2016 (teaching weeks 5 and 11) at 1.10 - 2.00pm in room 4.01 Dugald Stewart Building. Please make sure that you attend both tutorials.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 8 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
80 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Essay and Participation [Essay 3,000 words, 80%; Participation 20%]
The participation assessment will take the form of two (short) in-class quizzes (each worth 5%) and one presentation (either individual or small group, depending on numbers), worth 10%
Essay deadline: Thursday 21st April 2016 by 12 noon.
Return deadline: Friday 13th May 2016 |
| Feedback |
- MSc-only tutorials in weeks 5 and 11
- Students have the opportunity to submit a formative essay by week 6 deadline on Turnitin via Learn. The essay cannot be draft of summative essay but it can be on the same topic.
Formative essay deadline: Thursday 25th February 2016 by 12 noon
Return deadline: Friday 18th March 2016
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- develop core philosophical skills in philosophy interpreting authors, reconstructing and evaluating arguments, articulating theories, etc.
- gain knowledge of the main theories of well-being, and their strengths and weakness.
- defend the student's preferred theory (if any).
- understand some of the main philosophical debates and practical issues which the theory of wellbeing has implications for.
- gain confidence to give a short class presentation with the help of clear visual aids and ability to write an essay on the theory of well-being which displays critical assessment along with knowledge of the literature.
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Reading List
Textbook: The Philosophy of Well-Being: An Introduction as a textbook. This book will have a chapter corresponding to each week of class, giving a general overview of the topic. This will be supplemented with chapters from my (edited) Handbook of the Philosophy of Well-Being along with papers and books such as the following:
Crisp, R. (2006), 'Hedonism Reconsidered': Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 73: 619-645.
Darwall, S. Welfare and Rational Care (Princeton: PUP, 2004).
Feldman, F. Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties and Plausibility of Hedonism (Oxford: OUP, 2004).
Fletcher. G. (2013) 'A Fresh Start for the Objective-List Theory of Well-Being', Utilitas, 25, 206-220.
Haybron, D. The Pursuit of Unhappiness (OUP) Dorsey, D. (2010), Three Arguments for Perfectionism. Noûs, 44: 59-79.
Hawkins, J. (2014) 'Well-Being, Time and Dementia', Ethics, 507-542.
Hawley, K. 'Persistence and Time' The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death (ed.Steven Luper).
Hurka, T. 'Good' and 'Good For', Mind, 96 (1987), 71-3.
Kraut, R. 'Two Conceptions of Happiness', The Philosophical Review, 88 (1979),
167-97. What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being (Cambridge Mass.: HUP, 2007).
Lauinger, W. (2011) 'Dead Sea Apples and Desire-Fulfillment Welfare Theories', Utilitas, 23, 324-43.
Pitcher, G. 'The Misfortunes of the Dead', American Philosophical Quarterly, 21 (1984), 183-8.
Portmore, D. 'Desire-fulfilment and posthumous harm', American Philosophical Quarterly, 44 (2007), 27-38.
Regan, D. 'Why am I My Brother's Keeper?' in R. J. Wallace et al. (eds.) Reason and Value: Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004), 202-30.
Rosati, C. 'Internalism and the Good for a Person', Ethics, 106 (1996), 297-326.
Rosati, C.'Personal Good' in T. Horgan and M. Timmons (eds.) Metaethics After Moore (Oxford: OUP, 2006), 107-32.
Rosati, C. 'Objectivism and Relational Good', Social Philosophy and Policy (forthcoming).
Sarch, A. (2011) 'Internalism about a Person's Good: Don't Believe It', Philosophical Studies, 154(2).
Sarch, A. (2013). Desire Satisfactionism and Time. Utilitas, 25, pp 221-245. Glasgow, J. (2013) 'The shape of a life and the value of loss and gain', Philosophical Studies, 162/3, 665-82.
Sobel, D. 'Full Information Accounts of Well-Being', Ethics, 104 (1994), 784-810.
Velleman, D. (1991) 'Well-Being and Time,' Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 72, 48-77.
Full reading list available on Learn. |
Additional Information
| Course URL |
Please see Learn |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Presentation Skills
- Writing Skills |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The course will be taught by Dr Guy Fletcher.
Tutorials for PG students will happen on Tuesday 9th February and Tuesday 29th March 2016 (teaching weeks 5 and 11) at 1.10 - 2.00pm in room 4.01 Dugald Stewart Building. Please make sure that you attend both tutorials. |
| Keywords | Well-Being,Happiness,Utility |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Guy Fletcher
Tel: (0131 6)51 7112
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Lynsey Buchanan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5002
Email: |
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