Undergraduate Course: Understanding Your Values (DIVI10128)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will provide a structure for you to articulate and critically reflect about your core moral values and identity. Drawing on ideas from a range of ethical perspectives, it will help you to think about what histories you feel part of and why they matter, how you think about your moral commitments today and the ways in which you understand your responsibilities to the future. |
| Course description |
Academic Description
The course draws on approaches drawn from the humanities and the natural, human and social sciences which provide different perspectives on how we understand what values are and the role values play in our lives. Key themes in the course are how a sense of moral identity and purpose can be grounded in understandings of our past, present and future, as well as the value and potential limitations of our moral commitments.
Outline Content
Indicative topics that may be covered by this course include: the nature and roles of values in personal and societal life; the circle of moral responsibility; moral agency; the relationship between histories and moral identity; ethical orientations to the future; the process of sustaining and critically refining moral identities; moral inconsistencies, guilt, indifference and moral injury.
Student Learning Experience
Effective learning through this course will involve active engagement with a range of exercises and activities provided within and outside the taught classes. This can include an initial values audit, reflective writing that you maintain through the course and a summary portfolio drawing together your learning from the course. Guidance will be given on how to do reflective writing. Short lectures will be provided to provide a framework for understanding key issues and debates and a central part of the learning process will be through your attentive listening to the reflections of other course members as a way of clarifying similarities, differences and challenges for your own moral perspectives. Core reading will be provided to help you engage with key topics, but you will also be encouraged actively to search for resources that help you refine your thinking in ways that are personally relevant to you. To be able to engage successfully with this course you will need to be prepared to adopt an open approach to thinking about your personal commitments in ways that allow your perspectives and self-understanding to develop.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Divinity/Religious Studies courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 11,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Revision Session Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
170 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Short essay (1,500 words): 35%«br /»
Reflective report (3,000 words): 65% |
| Feedback |
Feedback opportunities will take the following forms:
students will be able to discuss outline plans for their short essay with the course organiser or tutors, and will give short, informal presentations about their chosen source to the group prior to submitting the essay.
students will be asked to participate in reflective exercises and discussions throughout taught sessions which will provide opportunities for class-level discussion and feedback on skills of reflection and active listening. These exercises will directly relate to content that students go on to write up in their reflective report.
students will be able to discuss key issues that they plan to address in their reflective report with the course organiser or tutors and to give short presentations on a specific issue from their report to the class.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- deepen their understanding of the sources, shape, implications and possible challenges of the moral frameworks for their lives;
- situate the current moral framework or centre for their lives in relation to an understanding of the past, including personal and wider social, cultural and environmental histories, as well as ways of thinking about the future
- to listen more carefully to others¿ perspectives (including those of other participants in the course as well as other texts and sources) and to reflect on the implications of similarities and differences between those views and their own
- identify ways in which they can continue to reflect on their moral framework beyond the duration of this course
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Reading List
Carlisle, Claire. Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Soren Kierkegaard. London: Penguin, 2020.
Hauerwas, Stanley. The Character of Virtue. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2018.
Macaskill, William, What We Owe the Future. Oxford: One World, 2023.
Pigliucci, Massimom, Skye Cleary and Daniel Kaufman (eds), How to Live a Good Life. New York: Knopf Doubleday, 2020.
Pinn, Anthony B., Writing God¿s Obituary: How a Good Methodist Became a Better Atheist. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Publishing.
Superson, Anita. Feminist Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge Core, 2024.
Volf, Miroslav et al, Life Worth Living. New York: Penguin, 2023.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
By enabling students to reflect critically on their moral identities and commitments, this course will:
facilitate academic and personal learning that makes a positive difference to students and the world around them
motivate students to engage in an on-going process of personal, moral reflection after completion of the course
cultivate students' capacity for self-reflection in which they take personal responsibility for their future work and development
develop students' capacity to engage with different perspectives in constructive, respectful and ethical ways
provide a framework to support students' active engagement with resources that support personally meaningful learning
engage and develop their capacity for critical reflection on their perspectives
enable students to engage with new situations and perspectives with sensitivity and integrity
refine students' skills in communicating about personally significant perspectives
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| Keywords | Moral values,ethics,reflection,self |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Gordon Lynch
Tel:
Email: glynch2@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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