Teaching ethics and sustainability through fiction

Traditional ethics teaching often isolates theory from practice. Novels, however, allow students to inhabit dilemmas in context, empathise with different perspectives, explore competing values and imagine consequences – skills essential for addressing sustainability challenges.

My novel The Philosopher and the Assassin exemplifies this approach. In this campus-based narrative, Iris Tate, a professor of moral philosophy, is asked to advise on an impossible dilemma. She engages her students in solving a murder through a citizens’ assembly on climate, forcing readers to confront questions of justice, governance and personal responsibility. The novel interweaves the crime story with lectures in which ethical issues are debated through the lens of moral philosophies. 

It’s a story of moral ambiguity and institutional complexity. Students will encounter:

• ethical dilemmas (should individual rights be sacrificed  for collective security?)
• institutional fragility (how do governance systems handle crises?)
• personal responsibility (what does it mean to act ethically under uncertainty?)

How educators can use a novel to embed SDGs into arts and humanities 

Philosophy

In reading the novel, philosophy students can apply utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics to three pivotal scenes. How often do the ethical theories converge on the same answer? Compare conclusions; discuss the limits of each framework in practice.

Educators can raise questions about how the conclusions of ethical theories change over a longer time frame, one that could include future generations, or if rights were extended to animals. What challenges do biocentric, ecocentric and future-generational perspectives present to the ethical theories in the book?

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They can also assign chapters where the protagonist debates the dilemma with her students. Or divide students into groups where each applies a different ethical framework (utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics or care ethics, for example) to the same dilemma. Groups then present their reasoning and identify what each framework prioritises or ignores.

Discussion prompts can look at which framework offers the most “just” solution, blind spots that emerge when applying theory to practice, and how these frameworks align with SDG principles of justice and inclusion.

Creative writing or literature

Creative writing or literature classes can focus on narrative structure, unreliable narration or the symbolism of the assembly format or they can analyse voice, form, symbolism or genre tropes.

What does this novel say about the distinction between tropes and genre? The Philosopher and the Assassin uses tropes of campus novels and also satirises those of whodunnits, while campus scenes interwoven with philosophy lectures and the whodunnit place it within the genre of literary fiction.

Tasks could include:

• asking students to rewrite a scene from a marginalised participant’s perspective
• explore how stories can change the shared, often unspoken, sets of values, symbols and beliefs that define what a society considers normal, desirable or moral
• compare how the story engages readers in potential climate policies with how policy documents try to do this.

How educators can use a novel to embed SDGs into social sciences 

Politics

Politics students can map the institutional failures that underlie the dilemmas posed in the story. They can also evaluate the constitutional adaptations proposed and identify which voices are under-represented. 

Another exercise is to draft an anticipatory governance plan for future citizens’ assemblies (including, for example, avoidance of capture by vested interests, risk registers, whistleblowing protections or strategies to translate recommendations into policy).

They can also:

• produce a memo evaluating alternative institutional responses to enable more ethical decision-making that addresses long-term societal needs
• justify trade-offs
• identify interests, power and values among assembly participants or university staff and students.

Business governance and business ethics

A novel can be used to teach business governance and ethics. How does it portray business in terms of its ability to deliver on sustainability goals? 

With respect to the two of the climate policies proposed in the citizens’ assembly on climate in The Philosopher and the Assassin – sharing economy and personal carbon trading – what would these mean for business? How might their business models and investment decisions change in the light of such policies? 

Choose a business practice that has ethical implications (for example, sweat shop labour, planned obsolescence, marketing strategies that promote high-carbon consumption or investing in fossil fuels) and apply ethical theories to the practice. Do they agree? Assign groups, which each choose a theory ­– such as John Rawls’ Theory of Justice, Kant’s moral duty, utilitarianism, virtue theory or ubuntu – and see if they converge on an ethical course of action. 

The protagonist questions whether the legal form of publicly owned corporations designed to maximise shareholder value is fit for purpose. With respect to challenges of climate change, inequality and misinformation, do you agree? What alternative business forms are available? 

The citizens’ assembly outlined in the book is comprised of participants chosen to represent all sectors of society, and it makes decisions based on a deliberative process. How does this compare with a board of directors? Some companies have “nature” on their board, and countries such as Germany have worker representatives. What would a truly multi-stakeholder board of directors look like? How would that affect business decision-making? 

An at-a-glance guide to SDG mapping

The Philosopher and the Assassin shows how fiction can bridge the gap between theory and practice, helping students engage with the ethical, political and organisational challenges linked to the SDGs. By placing readers inside complex dilemmas, the novel fosters deeper critical thinking, empathy and imagination across disciplines. It offers a flexible, narrative-based tool that helps students examine systems, weigh competing values and imagine more just and sustainable futures.

Denise Baden is professor of sustainable business at Southampton Business School at the University of Southampton.

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