Global Ethics: An Introduction (FutureLearn)

Offered by The Open University,
Global Ethics: An Introduction (FutureLearn)

Explore the key ethical theories surrounding global challenges and learn how philosophy can be used to address these problems. Widespread poverty, closed borders and catastrophic climate change. In our interconnected world, we face challenges that demand global solutions. But how do you find the right solutions?

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On this course, you will use key ethical theories to examine the most important global issues of our time. What should be done about widespread poverty? Can it be right for countries to control migration and close borders? And what about climate change: Why care about preserving the world for future generations anyway?
Upon completing this course, you’ll be better equipped to think about and debate some of today’s most complex global ethical challenges.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1: How do key moral theories apply to the most important issues in global ethics?
Week 2: Global inequality: What should be done about widespread poverty?
Week 3: Migration: Are controlled borders unethical?
Week 4: Climate change: Should we care for future generations?

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Discuss key moral theories and apply them to important issues in global ethics.
  • Explore and examine the global challenge of inequality, and appreciate its complexity.
  • Apply and critically assess different arguments relating to the global challenge of migration.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the global challenge of climate change, and consider our obligations to future generations.
  • Identify and use the concepts and methods of philosophy.
  • Apply basic philosophical arguments.
  • Identify and use key ethical concepts.
  • Debate in a reasoned manner some of the most important questions of our time.
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