Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon

    Overview

    What is well-being? What is its significance in personal life, ethics, and public policy? We seek the best philosophical answers to these questions.

    In this paper, you will learn a lot about individual well-being. In particular, you will work out the best answer you can give to questions such as: What is the good life for an individual? What is the basis or underpinning of such a life? Are there many sorts of good lives, or is there only one? For instance, is the good life for an individual just what feels good inside to that individual, or are connections to others and to our wider world also essential?

    About this paper

    Paper title Ethical Theory
    Subject Philosophy
    EFTS 0.15
    Points 18 points
    Teaching period Semester 1 (On campus)
    Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) $981.75
    International Tuition Fees Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website.
    Prerequisite
    One 200-level PHIL paper
    Restriction
    PHIL 311, PHIL 413
    Schedule C
    Arts and Music
    Contact
    andrew.moore@otago.ac.nz
    Teaching staff

    Convenor and Lecturer: Associate Professor Andrew Moore

    Paper Structure

    We first clarify the core question the paper will seek to answer, then consider several different ways of understanding the range of promising answers. Through a range of methods, and drawing on both philosophical work and related work from the sciences and other modes of inquiry, we then pursue in-depth, critical examination of some leading answers to the question of what it is for one's life to go well.

    Teaching Arrangements

    Three one-hour classes per week, which are typically interactive seminars rather than lectures.

    Textbooks

    All students will receive a free PHIL 338 Coursebook.

    Texts:
    Guy Fletcher, The Philosophy of Well-Being: an introduction (Routledge, 2016).
    Guy Fletcher (ed.), Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Well-Being (Routledge, 2016).
    Ben Bradley, Well-being (Polity Press).

    Graduate Attributes Emphasised
    Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Ethics, Research, Self-motivation.
    View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.
    Learning Outcomes

    Students who successfully complete the paper will develop:

    • Understanding of the main issues and views in the philosophy of well-being, demonstrated in a short essay
    • Understanding and skill in philosophical assessment of a major theory of well-being (or another agreed well-being topic), demonstrated in a research essay
    • Skill in generating, presenting and responding to philosophical ideas about well-being, demonstrated in a presentation to the class

    Timetable

    Semester 1

    Location
    Dunedin
    Teaching method
    This paper is taught On Campus
    Learning management system
    Blackboard

    Lecture

    Stream Days Times Weeks
    Attend
    A1 Tuesday 14:00-14:50 9-13, 15-22
    Wednesday 16:00-16:50 9-13, 15-22
    Thursday 16:00-16:50 9-13, 15-16, 18-22
    Back to top