Value Studies modules

Module Codes: VA2009, VA3009

Offered in Semester 1

Without nourishing food human beings quickly wither and die. Yet eating is about more than fuelling our bodies. Our eating habits often go unexamined, but in this module, we will try to understand how eating is not only a natural need but also an activity ordered by aesthetic, cultural, moral, religious and political norms and ideals. We will take a close look at contemporary eating orders (and disorders) and consider how we do, could or should make decisions about what, how, where and with whom we eat. Sometimes serious conversation about such issues is rejected as trivial or evaded with the Latin dictum “de gustibus non est disputandum” (in matters of taste, there can be no discussion), but here we will take the delights of the table seriously and see where the conversation can go. Our seminars will take place in the company of texts and works of art by some of the thoughtful eaters who have struggled with questions about food before us and who might be able to help us eat well in the 21st century.

Module Codes: VA2016, VA3016

Offered in Semester 1 and Semester 2

Many of the most captivating children’s stories are loved across generations and by adults as well as children. Often, they deal with themes that seem important at any age. How to face danger and adversity; what a good friend is like; or why truth and goodness matter. In this module we will explore some much-loved children’s stories and the values that are at their heart. In each case we will ask what about the story makes it significant, and what kind of claims it invites us to consider. Alongside our chosen stories, we will look at other influential thought on the same themes and examine shared insight or disagreement between texts. Together we will discuss how the stories we read can contribute to our understanding of particularly significant values.

Module Codes: VA2017, VA3017

Offered in Semester 2

What is ‘nature’? What does it mean to care about, respect or follow nature? Should ‘nature’ in any sense of the term guide our sense of what is valuable? In this module, we will seek answers to these questions by studying different conceptions of nature. Our inquiries – focusing on both human and non-human nature – will invite us to engage with fundamental issues concerning especially ethics, health, education, and ecology: Are human beings good by nature, or evil, or some kind of mixture? Is exposure to wild nature in some way good for us? What can we learn from people and cultures who seem to live close to nature? How might our views of nature help us understand and deal with climate change, the extinction of species or natural disasters? The module will be interesting to students from all disciplines who want to understand better one of the most complex and important concepts we live with today.

Module Codes: VA2003, VA3003

Offered in Semester 1

The relation between humans and other animals constitutes one of the frontiers of moral life today. Qualms about factory farming and meat-eating are widespread. So are worries about animal experimentation and zoos. In this module, these various moral anxieties provide starting points for a series of inquiries into the current lives of non-human animals and their relation to us humans. How, and to what extent, do we understand other animals? What do we owe other animals, wild and tame? Is it true, as the animal rights movement insists, that we stand in deeply flawed relations to the other animals? And if so, what should we do about it? How, in a (more) ideal world, would humans and other animals relate to one another? What, in other words, are the values that should guide our relations to the other animals in the future?

Module Codes: VA2007, VA3007

Offered in Semester 1 and Semester 2

While many sciences investigate aspects of human nature, none seems to come as close to home as the study of the human brain. A growing number of books and documentaries on the brain suggest that neuroscience will sooner or later tell us who we really are. Some claim that mysteries like consciousness, the self and free will, which have (supposedly) eluded philosophy and religion for centuries, are about to be solved by scientific discoveries. Along with this knowledge (it is said) will come power to change who we are and how we behave: not only to treat neurological disorders, but also to modify and enhance our brain functions using drugs or other technologies. Maybe this knowledge will be used to influence customer choices in marketing, or to interrogate criminal suspects. We might be able to enhance our cognitive abilities, our mood, and our moral qualities. Perhaps we will be able to upload our minds to supercomputers and break free from the limits of our flesh-and-blood bodies altogether. This module will critically explore claims like these and the ambitions that go along with them, drawing on the work of neuroscientists, philosophers, theologians and others. For example: how much – and what – can neuroscience really tell us about what it is to be human? How feasible and how coherent are proposals for brain reading, cognitive enhancement or mind uploading? And even if such things can be done, should they? Is a cognitively enhanced or posthuman future one that we should hope for, or fear?

Module Codes: VA2022 / VA3022

Offered in Semester 2

The notion of rights is central in contemporary moral, political, and legal thought. But what are rights? And how significant are they? In this module, we will investigate the historical background for the contemporary prominence of rights and examine some of the central difficulties and disagreements that define conversations about rights today. We will focus primarily on the idea of human rights, but also consider the possible rights of specific groups – e.g. children or refugees – and consider the possibility of extending the notion beyond the human. The aim of the module is to introduce students to a concept widely used in public debates, but also contested and criticized, and so invite them into the fundamental discussion about the value of rights.  

Module codes: VA2024/VA3024

Offered in Semester 1 and Semester 2

Love seems to be a crucial value—a value that may even be synonymous with what it means to value anything at all. Yet this general truth raises serious difficulties: not only is the potential range of love objects bewilderingly vast, but what it means “to love” is a question with many competing answers. In this module, we will examine a variety of views about love: ancient and modern, western and non-western, some that confirm the high value commonly placed on love and some that invite us to be sceptical about the emphasis on love in our culture. The aim of the module is to introduce students to the great human conversation about the meaning of love and to be a forum in which we, students and staff, can continue this conversation ourselves.