1. The concept and role of ethics
2. The beginning of ethics in European intellectual history
3. Subject areas of ethics
4. The basic models of ethics
5. Descriptive and prescriptive ethics
Seminar on virtues: Faithfulness
Ethics I
Ethics is the science concerned with appropriate human behaviour. In a descriptive and prescriptive way, it studies motivation, methods, goals, and consequences, and its own ability to generalize both in an individual and communal sense. Immanuel Kant talks about the problem of “How should we act?” through the correlation of three questions: who is man, how do we know, and, what may we hope for? Thus the description of good behaviour can only be answered through the correlation of anthropology, epistemology and religious faith – rightly declared by moral philosophy. However, the source of Christian ethics is revelation. According to this, each act has the same motivation and measure: “that you may live a life worthy of the Lord” (Col 1:10). The aim of the subject is to make one aware that man, who simultaneously lives in the order of nature and grace, is basically a moral being. So long as he recognizes the good in God's revealed will and practises this in the community of his fellow man, he fulfils his mission, or on the contrary, he falls short of it.
Competences
Specific competences
Students becomes familiar with such basic ethical concepts as freedom, responsibility, conscience, norms, values, respect, autonomy, heteronomy, and human dignity and moreover with the different types of interpretation on morality, including Kant's ethics, utilitarianism, and contractualism, etc. Students will understand the common and differentiating traits of general morality and Christian ethics. During seminars, and based on acquired concepts and an ethical point of view, students will work with the key concepts of ethics, focusing on virtues, thus proving both their sensitivity to the problems, and their ability to apply their theoretical knowledge.General competences
The course will help students to identify moral dilemmas and often contradictory moral requirements in different life circumstances, and on the basis of a certain value system, to recognize the true sense of classical and theological virtues (wisdom, courage, righteousness, self-control; faith, hope, and love), and through practising these to be the creator of true values.Course structure
-
General ethics
-
Christian ethics
1. Definition
2. Doctrines
3. The relationship between ethics and dogmatics -
The contested freedom of the Christian man
1. In a dogmatic sense: there is no freedom
2. In an ethical sense: there is freedom
3. Determinism and indeterminism
4. Freedom as autonomy
5. Christian freedom and/or political freedomSeminar on virtues: Courage
-
Theological and/or philosophical ethics
1. Is there ethics without metaphysics, or morality without religion?
2. Ethical differences between theology and philosophy
3. Law under the order of grace: the core of Christian ethicsSeminar on virtues: Righteousness
-
Ethical models I
1. Plato and Aristotle
2. The ethics of Kant
3. UtilitarianismSeminar on virtues: Generosity
-
Ethical models II
1. Libertarianism
2. Contractualism
3. The ethics of discourse
4. The ethics of virtueSeminar on virtues: Humility
-
Authority of the Bible in ethical questions and the autonomy of intellect
1. Current issues
2. The age-related and universality of the Bible's ethical approach
3. Biblical ethos and experienceSeminar on virtues: Mercy and compassion
-
Church and morality in Protestantism
1. Interpretation of the Church
2. The ethical consequences of ecclesiology
3. The sphere of the Church's moral attitudeSeminar on virtues: Patience and perseverance
-
The Church and the public sphere
1. The congregation sent into the world
2. Public witness of the Church on moral issues
3. Morality and confession of faithSeminar on virtues: Purity
-
The Roman Catholic viewpoint
1. Roman Catholic moral theology
2. Roman Catholic social teachingSeminar on virtues: Wisdom
-
Norms and values
1. Values
2. Norms
3. Conflict between norms and values
4. The dynamics of norms and valuesSeminar on virtues: Meekness and godliness
-
Religion – law – morality in the pluralistic society
1. Marking the territories
2. The impossibility of separation
3. The necessity of differentiationSeminar on virtues: Humour
-
Sermon on the Mount as the constitution of Christian ethics I
1. Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Discipleship
2. Cheap/costly grace
3. Unconditional discipleship
4. Commentary on Matthew 5Seminar on virtues: Gifts of the Holy Spirit and thankfulness
-
Sermon on the Mount as the constitution of Christian ethics II
1. Commentary on Matthew 6: the inner life, truth, prayer, carefreeness
2. Commentary on Matthew 7: the separation and solidarity of the disciplesSeminar on virtues: Love
Total estimated time
Classroom study
- 2 hours/week (Course: 1 | Seminar: 1 | Practice: 0)
- 28 hours/semester (Course: 14 | Seminar: 14 | Practice: 0)
Individual study
- Time for studying course notes and bibliography: 20 hours/semester.
- Time for further documentation in libraries, electronic platforms, or on the field: 10 hours/semester.
- Time for preparing essays, papers, or documentation: 10 hours/semester.
- Time for personal tutoring: 2 hours/semester.
- Total individual study: 42 hours/semester.
- Total estimated time: 70 hours/semester.
Examination
1. Szóbeli vizsga az előadásokon készített jegyzetek és a kiadott anyag alapján - 50%
2. Írásbeli dolgozat a bemutatott szemináriumi témáról - 50%