This 8-week online programme is really a memorable and fabulous experience for me. In the programme I’ve taken 4 lectures, 3 sessions, and 8 tutorials. It familiarizes me with a canonical work of Mill’s utilitarianism and one of the major theories of normative ethics—consequentialism. In tutorials I need to take initiative to express and share my opinions, instead of just listening to what the tutor said and comprehending them. This indeed urges me to read core reading and supplementary reading materials before (and search more information almost always), take notes, identify the thesis and the argument, think more about my own view, do more critical reflections, try to give some objections or defend the philosophers’ arguments, express and discuss to engage in these tutorials. These do help me so much, my ability of reading, listening, writing and speaking have been improved a lot. Moreover, I’ve experienced this special teaching form and the characteristics of the western education system. What’s more, it also develops and improves my skills in analysing and making philosophical arguments. On the fourth week and the eighth week, I handed in one essay respectively, and I’ve already received the feedback from Dr Kate Kirkpatrick, my tutor, this let me have a better understanding of English academic writing. Additionally, it arouses my interests of moral philosophy (especially practical moral philosophy), during this programme I find the rich contents of moral philosophy, and many contemporary real problems it concerns about.
I’d like to thank my college for giving me this chance, thank Janina Duda, Georgina Thomes, Russell White, Lana Delerue for all the arrangements, thank my tutor Dr Kate Kirkpatrick for her excellent teaching and sufficient preparation. This experience is quite inspiring and precious!
