On October 28, Professor Paul Blackledge from London South Bank University, UK, was invited to observe the course Selected Readings in Ethics (Bilingual) in Room 304, Area B, Law Building, Central Campus of Jilin University. The course is taught by Professor Qu Hongmei and Lecturer Jiang Haoliang from the School of Philosophy and Sociology, and is designed for third-year undergraduate philosophy majors of the school, with Selected Readings in Western Ethics as the course textbook. The class mainly took the form of all-English student presentations followed by teacher reviews and comments.
The students delivered presentations focusing on Chapter 12 of Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue. To start with, student Liu Jinhao gave an introductory lead-in, noting that MacIntyre’s core task in the book is to diagnose modern morality. Next, student Chen Zhongrui explained the first half of the selected text to the attending teachers and students. He recounted MacIntyre’s restatement of the Aristotelian tradition, pointing out that MacIntyre advocates re-exploring the intrinsic connection between “happiness”and “virtue”, while also confronting challenges such as the “metaphysical biology” embedded in Aristotle’s theory. Finally, student Xia Peiyan elaborated on the second half of the text. He stated that MacIntyre highlights the distinctive features of Aristotelian ethics by drawing a comparison between Kant and Aristotle, and that Aristotle regards “friendship” as the key bond linking individuals and the polis community. Professor Paul Blackledge actively offered comments and raised questions throughout the students’ presentations. His remarks on MacIntyre’s classification of practices guided students to further reflect on the precision of the definition of practice. Meanwhile, he proposed that After Virtue should be examined in conjunction with relevant academic research, inspiring students to closely connect their thinking on moral society with human development.
After class, Professor Blackledge commented that the students were well-prepared, confident in expression and capable of independent thinking, making this a highly successful presentation session. The students also shared that Professor Blackledge’s participation was greatly meaningful, as it helped them deepen their academic comprehension of English-language literature. Also present at the class were a number of master’s and doctoral students majoring in ethics, who also engaged in interactive discussions on the students’ presentations.
The Selected Readings in Ethics (Bilingual) course invites international scholars to participate in various formats every year, so as to broaden students’ international horizons and improve the bilingual teaching effect of the course. (Writers: Liu Jinhao, Chen Zhongrui, Xia Peiyan, Jiang Haoliang)
