II. The University

Learning Objectives

5. Moral Maturity

Moral maturity is marked by depth and consistency of moral judgment; by recognition that any moral judgment may be fallible; that moral judgment is complex, in that moral principles, if they are to be applied to a specific case, may need to be interpreted. Moral maturity is a requirement in the person who is to apply a body of knowledge or a skill to the solution of a problem, or to the understanding of a situation, if the knowledge is not to remain abstract and the skill potential unrealized.

Attainment of this objective is probably best realized by appropriate consideration of moral issues in context, as they arise in the course of study. In this way, a moral perspective may be shown to be inherently important to study of a body of material, and not merely something supplementary to it (guidelines for conducting ethical discussion in the classroom have been written by the Ethics Research Group in the Department of Philosophy).

Scope for demonstration of moral maturity can be provided in seminars and other assignments, if problems in the moral issues associated with a subject are set for consideration alongside problems in content and process.

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