DEVELOPMENT ETHICS

The field of social development studies incorporates vast theories and arguments with regard to development. All these are informed and directed towards various ends through the use of the means deemed fit by these theories and approaches to development. In the midst of all these development theorizations and execution, this course unit comes in to highlight the place that ethics occupies in development. It attempts to comprehensively demonstrate the centrality of ethics in development theory and practice if development is to have meaning. Broadly put, it seeks to provide a synoptic overview of the contemporary moral challenge of sustainable development and the similarities and differences in its interpretation by ethicists throughout the world. The course unit therefore poses questions like: What should we call development? What should be the right goal of development? What means are acceptable and unacceptable for development? Who is morally responsible for beneficial change/development? What are the obligations of rich societies to poor ones and poor ones to themselves? How should the burdens and benefits of development be distributed? In answering all these questions in this course, we shall analytically employ ethical principles, theories, and argumentation.