These notes originally formed the basis of short lectures delivered to students doing the 'Philosophy and Ethics' papers in Religious Studies at AS and A2 level, hence most of the philosophy topics are concerned with the Philosophy of Religion. They do, however, touch on broader issues concerning language and the nature of the self, freedom and so on.

 

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Ethics                                                                                                          
 

Virtue Ethics   Brief notes introducing this approach to ethics, referring both to Aristotle and modern virtue ethics. Further notes, taken from sections of An Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics are available here under the title Aristotle and Virtue Ethics.

 

Natural Law Ethics   These notes give the background to the Natural Law approach, and some examples of how it may be applied.

 

Abortion and Euthanasia   These notes give a basic introduction to the issues and the way in which natural law, Kantian and situationist theories might approach them.                                       
 

What is Conscience?   These notes are taken from the relevant sections of An Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics, giving a basic introduction to what conscience is and what part it plays within moral debate.

 

Meta-ethics  These notes offer a broad introduction to Meta Ethical theories, including emotivism and prescriptivism. They draw on material from An Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics.

 

The Ethics of War  Basic notes on the Just War theory and associated issues, taken from a lecture given in 2008.

 

Sexual Morality: Christian demands and modern attitudes  A lecture which attempts to show that neither Christian demands nor modern attitudes are simple and uniform, but looks at some basic ways in which religion engages with sexual morality.

 

Philosophy   

 

Religious Experience   What is it? Is it a natural phenomenon? What kinds of experience are called 'religious'? Is it what is experienced, or how it is experiences that makes it religious? 

 

Plato and the Forms  - a basic introduction to this key feature of Plato's work

 

Free Will and Determinism  This given an introduction to determinism, relevant both to issues of morality and the nature and freedom of the will.

 

The Cosmological Arguments and Was the Universe Created, or Does it Exist by Chance?  were given on different occasions but on broadly the same topic. The former gives a straightforward explanation of Aquinas, the latter is more broadly based.

 

Miracles (for AS level) and Did Jesus (or anyone else) perform miracles?  The former gives a basic outline of the Hume and a broad consideration of the nature of miracles; the latter presents the same topic in a broad religious context.

 

Augustine and the Problem of Evil gives an introduction to a major challenge to theistic belief, which is raised again by The Goodness of God in the Judaeo-Christian tradition.  Belief is related to ethics in Is God Always Right?, which gives an outline of the Euthyphro Dilemma.

 

Language gives an introduction to Logical Positivism and also the later Wittgenstein, the latter being applied to religious language in The Religious Language Game.

 

The nature of the self is considered in Aristotle and the soul and in Parapsychology and the debate about life after death.

 

Revelation through Scripture examines some of the problems of uncritically ascribing ultimate authority to religious writings.

 

God - thought or experience asks about the nature and function of the word 'God'.

 

Freud examines his basic criticism of religion and also his views about what religion offers.