Comparative Ethics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Comparative Ethics -- This course introduces students to the discipline and practice of comparative ethics. Students will examine and discuss a variety of influential primary sources in ethics from a variety of traditions, with a special focus on different accounts of virtue and self-cultivation practices. Students will also read studies in comparative ethics from the disciplines of religious studies, philosophy, and theology, with special attention given to the question of why comparative work is worthwhile and to methodological questions in comparative work. The overall aim of the course is not only to engage in the comparative study of ethical views and practices from different traditions, but to examine and evaluate different approaches to comparative ethics, reasons for doing comparative ethics and its practical value in a contemporary setting, and the place of comparative ethics in the wider disciplines of religious studies, philosophy, and theology.