MA in Ethics and Political Theory

The MA in Ethics and Political Theory, jointly taught by the departments of Politics and Philosophy, is a thorough and enlightened introduction to graduate study of both subjects. Some students wish to prepare themselves for doctoral research in moral philosophy, normative political theory, or the history of political thought; other simply wish to spend a year in systematic thought about topics of pressing public and personal concern. Students are taught through individual supervision of three assessed 5-6,000 word essays and a 20,000 word dissertation. They also attend a weekly seminar in which they are expected to discuss pre-circulated reading and to respond to each other's work-in-progress. Essay titles are chosen in consultation with supervisors from a list that currently includes contractualism, constructivism, consequentialism, deontology, virtue, pluralist intuitionism, relativism, prudence and personal well-being, particularism, partiality and impartiality, moral realism, moral fictionalism, expressivism, reasons for action, decision theory, game theory, public goods and collective action, free will and moral responsibility, personal identity and the self, the political role of religion, abortion and euthanasia, bioethics and genetics, punishment and self-defence, jurisprudence, constitutionalism, toleration, liberalism, multiculturalism, distributive justice, basic income, contemporary egalitarianism, libertarianism, anarchism, political authority and democracy, civil disobedience, gender and the family, feminism, population policy and demographic change, human rights and global poverty, fair trade and exploitation, nationalism, the ethics of war, intergenerational justice and climate change, animal rights, the philosophy of history, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Rouseau, Marx, J.S.Mill, and Rawls.

Institution: University of Reading
Department: Department of Politics & International Relations
Entry: 2:1, any discipline
Starting: October
Address: GIPIS, Whiteknights PO Box 218 Reading, RG6 6AA
Telephone: 0118 378 8378
Contact: a.d.t.cromartie@rdg.ac.uk
More Information: http://www.rdg.ac.uk/Phil/graduate%20material/MA%20Ethics%20and%20Political%20Theory%20Publicity.doc

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