Syllabus
SYLLABUS Philosophy for Social Sciences – JPM399 Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague COURSE CONTENTS: Class
1. Global Justice and the Evolving World Order (I) Class
2. Global Justice and the Evolving World Order (II) Class
3. Global Justice and the Evolving World Order (III) Class
4. Justice as utility (Utilitarians) Class
5. Justice as fairness (John Rawls) Class
6. Justice as entitlement (Robert Nozick) Class
7. The Theory of complex equality and the 'spheres of justice' (Michael Walzer) Class
8. Communitarians on domestic and global justice (Alistair MacIntyre & Michael Sandel) Class
9. Capabilities and Global Justice (Martha Nussbaum) Class
10. John Rawls and his 'Law of Peoples' Class
11. Globalizing Rawls or Global Distributive Justice (Thomas Pogge) Class
12. Utilitarianism on Global Justice (Peter Singer) COURSE OBJECTIVES:The aim of this course is to introduce students to the theories of justice in society (social justice) and in international relations (global justice). While the necessary historical and philosophical background of the age-long struggle for social justice will be taken into account, the main focus of the course will be the contemporary debates about justice in domestic and international politics. Since “theories of justice” constitute the central part of the contemporary political theory, the ideas of some of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century will be discussed in the course of the semester, and the class readings will include fragments of some of the most important works of political philosophy of our times. Discussing various theories of justice, their relevance to the current political practice will always be considered (for example, by identifying how these theories of justice inform programs of various political parties and movements that are important part of the political scene in Europe and elsewhere. CLASS READINGS: All class readings will be uploaded in a PDF format on this webpage. They will be extracted chiefly from the following anthologies: Ethics: The Essential Writings (ed. Marino) Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings (ed. Perry, Bratman, Fischer) Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida (ed. Baird) Philosophy and Contemporary Issues (ed. Burr, Goldinger) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth (ed. Pojman) The Truth about the World: Basic Readings in Philosophy (ed. Rachels) COURSE GRADING: Final Essay: 35% Final Written Exam: 65% Total: 100% GRADING SCALE: A = 91-100 % – excellent B = 81-90 % – very good C = 71-80 % – good D = 61-70 % – satisfactory E = 51-60 % – minimal pass F = 0-50 % – fail
Annotation
Since the course is intended primarily for students of social sciences, who are in need of intellectual tools to understand the complexity of our increasingly interconnected and yet also ideologically fragmented world, its main aim is to teach the skills of careful, thoughtful, rigorous, rational analysis of beliefs, problems and questions, which find no answers in natural sciences, because pertain to specifically human, “first person”, perspective of self-conscious subjects. Thus we will treat philosophical questions as “open questions”, which unsurprisingly have no definitive answers and yet have to be confronted by every individual who hopes to live a meaningful life and by every society hopes to create conditions for flourishing life of its members.
Philosophy, since its inception in Ancient Greece, China and India, teaches critical engagement with beliefs, convictions, doctrines and dogmas taken for granted by most in an unreflective manner, thus often clearing the path for a social progress (Plato’s philosophical argument in favour of intellectual equality of men and women may serve as an example). On the other hand, philosophers (including the leading thinkers of the Western tradition), like all of us, tended to be blind to their own cultural prejudices and tended to ignore the contribution of other cultures.
Living at the threshold of a Global Age, thoughtful human beings need to engage in a critical but constructive way with the wealth of the diverse intellectual and ethical traditions of humanity, therefore this course adopts a “global”, that is cross-cultural perspective in addressing the eternal human questions: “Who am I?”, “What can I know?”, “What should I do?”, “What can I hope for?”