Being Good

On demand lecture-series for students of Ethics for AS/A Level Religious Studies
With Dr Peter Vardy and Charlotte Vardy

Academic Year 2021-22
Launches 30th January 2022

“Being Good” Candle Conferences’ first series of on-demand lectures for all students of Ethics for AS/A Level Religious Studies. Exploring content specified by ALL ENGLISH EXAMINATION BOARDS, “Being Good” will take students on a “deep dive” into Normative Ethics, helping them to analyse, evaluate and make informed, well-reasoned academic judgments about different approaches to moral decision-making.

Each pacy, engaging lecture will be accompanied by a 10 page .pdf student resources booklet, containing detailed notes on topic with lots of useful scholars and quotations as well as a range of learning activities to be completed during and/or after the lecture, focused on writing effective essays on these topics.

1) Natural Law
This first lecture will explore and evaluate Natural Law as an approach to decision-making, tracing its development from the work of Aristotle through St. Thomas Aquinas to its role in shaping Roman Catholic Moral Philosophy and then modern versions in the work of John Finnis and Bernard Hoose. Special attention will be paid to the relationship between Natural Law and Virtue Ethics as well as to how Conscience relates.

2) Kantian Ethics
The second lecture will move on to consider Kantian Ethics, another absolutist, deontological approach to decision-making but with a very different understanding of what being fully human and good consists in. The strengths of Kantian Ethics will be outlined with reference to the work of modern Kantian moral philosophers and then the weaknesses of the Kantian approach will be explored and evaluated.

3) Utilitarianism
The third lecture will turn to Utilitarianism, which at first seems to be a completely different approach to decision making, but which turns out to owe something to Kantian Ethics at least in versions presented by John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick and Peter Singer. Particular attention will be paid to the extent to which the problem of prediction undermines Act and Weak Rule Utilitarianism and the extent to which Utilitarianism is compatible with Christian Ethics.

4) Situation Ethics
The final lecture will outline and evaluate Joseph Fletcher’s attempt to develop a “New Morality” making Christian love the end in a consequentialist ethic. It will then consider whether Joseph Fletcher’s version of Situation Ethics is really compatible with Christian Moral Principles and how it compares with other Christian approaches to decision-making that are situational and prioritise agape-love, such as those of William Temple, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich.

These lectures would be an ideal way of finishing each topic through Year 12 or an excellent way of revising the content at the end of Year 12 (or Year 13). Alternatively, you could screen the lectures in a classroom… ready-made enrichment, revision classes or even a drop-down day.

To Book

A school-license to access the “Being Good” lecture series for the academic year 2021-22 (from 30/1/22 until 10/09/22) costs £100, including the rights to print and photocopy the 4 10 page .pdf resource booklets for unlimited numbers of participating students within that school/college during that time.

Alternatively, individual students can buy access to the course for the same period for £10 – this includes the right to print and use the resources for that student only.

With Candle you get:

○ Up-to-date scholarly content made engaging and tailored to the real needs of A Level students.

○ Sessions and resources designed by practicing teachers with a record of engaging students of all abilities.

○ Easy, secure online bookings with no fees to pay; just print off e-tickets.

e-mail: info@candleconferences.com

Tel: 0208 133 2241