Teaching code

4S007420

Teacher

Carlo Chiurco

Coordinator

Carlo Chiurco

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

M-FIL/03 - MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Period

Semester 2 dal Mar 6, 2023 al Jun 16, 2023.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of the foundations and purposes of human agency. Through his actions, not only man builds his place and his meaning within the world, but also constantly reshapes the very meaning of the world. Western science is precisely the biggest reshaping of the world and its meaning ever enacted by mankind; as a consequence, ethical questions of enormous importance are necessarily embedded in it. Students will acquire a basic knowledge of the main concepts of ethics and how to articulate them. They will also acquire a basic knowledge of the main ethical and bioethical questions concerning scientific research, with particular reference to the problems and questions involving the three curricula of the course. Finally, they will acquire a sufficient ability to critically analyze these questions and autonomously form their opinions on them.

Prerequisites and basic notions

There are no necessary pre-requisites. A high-school level knowledge of the history of Western philosophy may be useful.

Program

The course consists of three parts:
In the first, we will define what is ethics, what is bioethics, what are their principles and main conceptions, their relations with science both at theoretical and practical level, why it is important that scientific and technological progress takes an ethical turn, and how ethics may help science. In the second part, we will move on the specific analysis of the main bioethical topics concerning biotechnologies, notably biotech applied onto humans (cloning and genome editing), animals (the main problems of animal ethics, cloning and EG), and the environment, with a special focus on plants.
In the second part we will deal with specific case studies, with a special focus on CRISPR, environmental ethics, and medical bioethics. Cases will be discussed in the class, while students are invited to offer their own views on them by providing their apport, either individually or in group.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Classes will be held exclusively in presence, without any resorting to emergency online teaching. The latter will be confined solely to students who are incapacitated to attend in-presence classes because of CoViD: in this case, students are obliged to show proof of their health status after filling the specific form. The way classes are taught to ill students will be decided by the professor. It may include sending or uploading of the audio file of the class(es), the organisation of a class via streaming, sending additional teaching material, or organising a meeting (in-presence or via streaming).
Classes include lecturing and texts reading (complete or partial). Texts will be explained, and they can belong to different ages and/or authors. Reading may include multi-media supports, such as Power Point files, movie or video projections, and the audio files of the classes. The latter will be made available to students only at the end of the course. External academics or experts may also be invited to give a presentation.
Any change or suspension in the classes schedule will be communicated as soon as possible by email sent to the students’ institutional accounts.
Meeting hours for students are scheduled during the whole academic year. The meetings’ timetable is found at the personal webpage of the teacher, and it is constantly kept updated. However, students are required to arrange a meeting in advance by sending an email to the teacher.
The course program remains the same for non-attending students too, who can choose a personalised program in order to help them coping with job, health, or family issues, or simply because they choose so. A personalised program – which in any case must be jointly decided with the teacher – consists in reading other texts in addition to the general bibliography. These, however, integrate the texts of the program but do not substitute them. The professor is always ready to be helpful and provide all the necessary support.

Learning assessment procedures

The final examination consists of a written test, comprising fifteen multi-choice questions (with a single correct answer) and one open question, aimed to ascertain students’ knowledge on the following topics: 1) basic knowledge of ethics and bioethics; 2) the relation between ethics and technics; 3) bioethics applied to biotechnologies. The test will last two hours. Students who did not attend classes are also required to pass the test.
In case of a low turnout, the examination will be oral: students will be promptly informed of any variation by an email sent to their institutional accounts. The oral examination will consist of three questions on the same topics of the written one.

Evaluation criteria

The examination aims to ascertain: a) the level of knowledge acquired by students; b) the level of their acquired competences; c) the properness of their ways of expression their knowledge and competence.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

In the written examination, each correct answer to the multi-choice questions (a single correct answer) scores 1 point, the open question scores up to 15 points. The maximum score is 30 points, with the possibility to get the cum laude distinction.
In the oral examination, each question scores up to 10 points: 4 for the level of knowledge and competences respectively, and 2 for the properness of language.

Exam language

Italiano.