Antwerp Calling

July 24, 2006

Become a Master in Applied Ethics - the cynical demise of yet another word

Just take a look:

Quote from http://www.kuleuven.be/maae/page.php?LAN=E&FILE=subject&ID=354&PAGE=4

—-Masters of Applied Ethics Programme 2006-2007

Objectives:
The purpose of the programme is to provide mature students who have already completed a university degree (either a 4-year Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s degree) the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the method and content of ethical reflection. Both scientific and professional endeavours increasingly confront persons with ethical challenges and the need to address ethical issues in a competent, informed, and consequent manner. Ethical intuitions are no longer sufficient in themselves.

Recognizing that ethics itself is a discipline that exhibits its own, specific characteristics, and developing an appreciation and ability for ethical thinking and speaking requires adequate guidance.

Through this programme, students will be expected to achieve a thorough understanding of an ethical vocabulary and the discipline of ethics, its principal foundations, and its most frequently used methods of reasoning, assessment and problem solving, all of which will enable students to think about their respective areas of study or discipline and their professional involvements in a critical manner. Students will come to understand, follow, and participate in contemporary ethical discussions and research.

The programme accomplishes three goals: (1) an initiation to the discipline of ethics; (2) a thorough understanding of how ethics functions in different cultural and/or situational settings; (3) an application of this understanding to a specific field of ethical reflection, culminating in the ability to do individual research work in this field.

The degree is terminal in character and is intended to function as a complementary study to supplement what each participant has chosen as his or her principal area of study, research, or professional work. It is not intended to function (and cannot function) as a preliminary step towards a doctorate at the KU Leuven.

OK, now let’s get real: no-matter what you are or believe in, irrelevant to what you majored in, apparently the University of Leuven (near Brussels) believes that just by paying a large amount of tuition fee, one can become a real-life “Master in Applied Ethics”. Dream on, KU Leuven - this is an expensive time-waster. General theoretical ethics are a stuffy subject for those who stay behind the closed gates of a university setting, their real-life value is way below the the price of the course’s printed material. It’s a Catholic university, why not advise them to read the Bible nightly? ;-)

Anyway, it’s always nice to see that loads of cash can make someone a “Master in Applied Ethics” (note the “applied :-))

See also http://www.ethics.be/ethics/index.php?LAN=E

Some well-paid US managers visibly took their “applied ethics” tuition elsewhere:

enron.jpg

[read Enron's "code of ethics": http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/packageart/enron/enron.pdf ]

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