Module Specifications
Academic Year 2026 - 2027
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Description This module situates ethics as a project that emerges from the fundamental relationship between self and other, where other is broadly conceived to incorporate the human other and the more-than-human other, including the vegetal. It will consider key thinkers and texts that have influenced thinking about otherness within the latter part of the western history of theology and philosophy, including Martin Buber, Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Levinas, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Cora Diamond, and Sylvia Wynter. In considering the ethical, the module will examine forms of human marginalisation (including woman as other to man, othering through categories such as race, and ageing as a process of social diminishment) as well as the marginalisation of other life forms. It will analyse concepts of transcendence and the divine, as well as consider modalities of knowing the other, such as the gaze and touch. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Identify and consider the main ways in which the ethical relationship between self and other has been construed across different thinkers and texts 2. Extend the self–other relationship as elaborated between humans to the relationship between humans and other living forms 3. Apply the self–other relationship to current ethical concerns, including migration, the application of AI technology, and the environment 4. Examine the advantages and disadvantages of different conceptions of self–other relationship 5. Relate conceptions of the self–other relationship to different modalities of knowing 6. Critically evaluate primary texts and their key aspects, assessing their significance for ethical thinking | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Content • Ethics as relational project grounded in the self–other encounter • Self–other relationship between human subjects • Self–other relationship with animal and vegetal life • Dialogical, existential, and phenomenological approaches to intersubjectivity • Feminist and gendered analyses of otherness and embodiment • Ethical attention, moral vision, and responsibility beyond ego-centred agency • Modalities of encountering the other: gaze, touch, vulnerability, reciprocity and responsiveness | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List Books:
Articles:
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Other Resources None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||